


The Psychic

by FairlyAverage



Category: Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types, Twilight Series - Stephenie Meyer
Genre: Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Blood and Torture, Blood and Violence, Consent, Drama, Drama & Romance, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Consent, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Mild Kink, Romance, Smut, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-31
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 07:08:26
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 38,993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29114292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairlyAverage/pseuds/FairlyAverage
Summary: There is nothing Aro wants more in the world than Alice Cullen's power. But what happens when a visiting nomad brings his attention to a young girl by the name of Castiel; a human with a psychic ability obviously much stronger than Alice's? Aro sends Felix and Demetri to bring her to Volterra from her home in America, hoping he will finally get the gift he always wanted. OC/Marcus [Updates every Sunday]
Relationships: Marcus Volturi/Original Female Character, marcus volturi/OFC
Comments: 21
Kudos: 66





	1. Discovery

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight universe or any of its characters, nor am I in any way affiliated with the saga. OC's are of my own invention as well as the plot, and this story is rated MA 18+. If you're underage or uncomfortable with adult themes do not read – but hey I'm not a cop.**

* * *

"How much further Demetri?"

These words were asked by Felix Volturi, a vampire of impressive strength and intimidating stature. He was nearly seven feet tall with muscles that would put weightlifting champions to shame. There were vampires out there who were strong like Felix, but none quite matched his strength, and none could hold a candle to him when it came to fighting skills.

Currently, Felix wore an expression of boredom upon his heartbreakingly beautiful face as he turned to look at his companion.

Demetri was beautiful like Felix, and though his hulking companion dwarfed his tall form, the contrast did not conceal the fact that Demetri – whose physique was lean and strong – was undoubtedly a force to be reckoned with.

It was blatantly obvious in the way the pair stood that they were the upholders; the ones who were sent out when a job had to be done and done well.

They had passed the sign marking "Welcome to Ivy Peak" a few miles back when suddenly Demetri had stopped short in his gait. His sudden stillness caused Felix to rush passed him, so the giant was forced to double back.

Felix's expression was slightly irritated at the sudden stop. Demetri – not only the world's best tracker but also his best friend – always had a bad habit of making sudden stops and turns when he was closing in on his target.

"She is near Felix," Demetri said thoughtfully, his eyes narrowing and his head cocking to the side as he focused on the mental flavor of the young mortal girl they were hunting. "Located… around half a mile southwest from this point,"

Felix smirked mischievously at Demetri. This was always the most exciting part of a hunt; closing in on your prey and trapping them where they couldn't run, but his grin faltered after a second of thought. This _particular_ hunt was expected to be very dull. Humans were never a match for their kind, and it was a human that Master Aro had sent them to retrieve from this very tiny town in America a week previously. They would have arrived sooner if it didn't it take time to cover their bases and make sure all travel arrangements were in order, for both their departure and return.

The memories containing the human their king had sent them to retrieve were from a nomadic vampire by the name of Ajmer Guptar, and the events that followed Aro's meeting with the nomad were certainly more interesting than the usual cases of humans who knew more than they should.

* * *

"Ah Ajmer," Aro breathed delicately from his throne as a handsome olive-skinned vampire entered the throne room escorted by one of the covens most powerfully gifted guards, Alec. "You did not inform us that you were stopping by for a visit!"

Aro had seen Ajmer only a handful of times since the latters creation a few centuries prior. He remembered the chaos the nomad had been responsible for in his newborn years (having been bitten and left to enter his new life utterly alone and ignorant to their laws) with an almost grandfatherly nostalgia. Of course, none of the chaos Ajmer had caused in his youth was really his fault; Aro had to come up with some very good arguments to keep his brother Caius from destroying Ajmer as a newborn because, while ignorance did not equal innocence, it didn't equal guilt either.

Ajmer breathed out a low sigh, his posture tense and his dark eyes scanning the room as he thought of the politest way to respond for, he did not wish to be there. But he didn't want to be rude to the vampire whom to this very day he still owed his life.

"I was actually not intending a visit. I was merely passing by on my way to Venice to meet up with an acquaintance of mine." He said honestly, "I must have come closer to your walls than I intended to, for I was accosted by your young guard moments later."

He inclined his head in Alec's direction and Alec glared at his back, probably because he wasn't pleased with being referred to a "young" when he was nearly twice Ajmer's age.

"Oh," Aro looked slightly disappointed, "Well I am sure you can understand why Alec bought you in here. We take the guarding of our home very seriously."

Aro stood from his throne at this point and descended the dais toward Ajmer before lifting his hand as if to shake the nomad's hand in farewell. "Of course, you are not required to stay if you do not wish to, but I must be sure of your truth." Aro said honestly, knowing people didn't like their privacy intruded upon but understanding he couldn't let a possible threat or new information walk out the door.

Ajmer, who only moments before had been completely calm regardless of the slightly stressful circumstance he was dragged into, suddenly looked very nervous – if not panicked. And it was his reaction that made not only Aro but _all_ the vampires in attendance, his brothers included, very suspicious.

Ajmer's reaction was caused by the fact he knew what showing Aro his memories would cost. It would cost the life of a very dear friend.

Since the last time he had seen Aro nearly century ago – 97 years if he was being exact – he had developed a friendship with a young human girl by the name of Castiel (Cas-tee-el).

He had met Castiel four years previously, and it had been very late at night in the dead of winter when he had first encountered the pretty redhead.

_It was negative ten degrees Fahrenheit that night in New Hampshire, and his feet had left no tracks in the snow as he ran through the streets. He knew what he was searching for, and it wasn't long until he found an elderly homeless man crouching in a box near the mouth of a dirty alleyway, which at that time didn't look so dirty due to the white snow blanketing the area._

_He didn't hesitate to claim his meal and the homeless man didn't have the chance to know what hit him, let alone feel any pain before his life was abruptly cut short._

_Without a moment's pause Ajmer dumped the body into the dumpster beside the boxes that were previously the man's home once he was finished, and he was thinking of the best way to destroy the evidence when he heard her._

_He turned blindingly fast on his heel, facing the entrance to the alley where she stood._

_Castiel was hardly an inch over five feet, and obviously thin in stature regardless of the fact she was wearing a large winter coat. The red curls of her hair that weren't tucked into her beanie were blowing toward him in the light wind, carrying her clean and almost minty scent toward him to entice the burn in his throat._

_He crouched instinctively, knowing he had to eliminate the witness to his crime, and her blue eyes pierced him as she sighed… almost as if she were agitated with him._

_"Easy Ajmer."_

_He froze, eyeing her suspiciously as he straightened up slowly. There was no way this girl could, or should, know his name. He had very few friends and none of them were human._

_She didn't wait for him to say anything as she started toward him while pulling a purple backpack that she had slung over her shoulder in front of her and drawing out a large can of what could only be some kind of flammable liquid. It kind of looked like paint thinner to him, but he couldn't be sure. She unscrewed the lid and Ajmer couldn't help but wrinkle his nose exactly as she did at the scent of the harsh chemicals._

_Haphazardly she lobbed it the few yards into the open dumpster, where it made a strange thud that caused her to wince, before pulling a small pack of matches out of the pocket of her jeans and lighting one._

_She made eye contact with him again at that moment, and didn't break it as she flicked the match into the dumpster as well. And he could see the knowledge in her eyes, the **understanding** there, as she reached out and took his hand._

Unconsciously Ajmer's hand twitched as he remembered the strange feeling of her soft hand warming his, and the very alien feeling he had yet to decipher that made his stomach twist. He had followed her out of the alley that night without a second thought and discovered that he was not the first vampire she had met but the seventh. She had known he would be coming for a while and was waiting for him to arrive. She said that she knew they would be very good friends just as she had been sure she would be friends with the others.

Castiel was psychic, in Ajmer's opinion she was probably the most powerful psychic in the world. She took great pride in what she could see, and she had never had a vision lead her wrong. She wanted to make the world a better place, a _happier_ place.

Ajmer could see the good in her. He could see how very sweet she was. But he was not blind to the loneliness there; he didn't have to ask to know that her ability had outcasted her for many years. She was a friend to his kind because being gifted was not abnormal for them and she would not be judged.

He cared so very deeply for the little human, she was so understanding, so innocent so… undeniably _kind._ He wanted to be her protector… he wanted to keep her from harm at all costs.

And now he hated himself. He knew deep down he had no choice but to present his hand for not doing so would hint at subterfuge and secrets; and when it came to the Volturi's way of seeing things only criminals had something to hide.

Before Ajmer could react Aro was upon him, clasping his right hand within both of his own. Ajmer stilled instinctively, both out of his own anxiety and so he wouldn't be seen as a threat.

At first Aro saw nothing of interest. He saw nothing at all to explain his young friend's anxiety in the centuries of his memories, and for a moment believed that they might have just been overreacting to nothing.

But then he saw her; the source of the current trouble in the nomad's mind. An American girl named Castiel and a very good friend of Ajmer's, likely the only person he dared to call a _friend_.

Aro would have sighed in disappointment at the news he would've been required to give, that the human would have to be executed, if he hadn't been able to see the reasons for Ajmer befriending her and the very reason the two had met in the first place.

The girl had the gift of _intuition_!

Alice Cullen… the seer whom he had the pleasure to meet this past March was nothing next to this human. Alice's ability was wondrous but flawed. It was very easy to avoid her extra sense and play with her ability's many holes and weak points. She was limited in a way Castiel was not. She was only able to see humans and vampires' immediate decisions with no ounce of solidarity, not to mention the fact that humans were blurry to her.

This human's gift was more advanced already with her perfect track record of correct visions and the fact she had no issues with clarity.

What an addition little Castiel would be to his coven! With the things she could see, she would make their overseeing of the "mythical" world only that much easier. But even better, since she had something she could offer their world, Aro now had a surefire excuse to argue against her execution if any were to demand explanation as to why she live.

"It seems-," Aro mused quietly as he dropped Ajmer's hand, the room's inhabitants hanging onto each word as they waited for instruction. "Ajmer has made acquaintance with a human whom holds a rather substantial psychic ability."

"You mean like the Cullen's girl? Alice?" Caius' voice cut in from behind Aro's shoulder, and the ruffling of fabric could be heard as he stood from his throne.

Ajmer refused to break eye contact with Aro to watch the blonde king, and he had a rather fervent look in his eye as he began to plead.

"Master Aro… please" he begged solemnly, trying to seem as subservient as possible, " _I beg you_. Let Castiel be. She has done no wrong-,"

"No wrong?" Caius' disbelieving tone barked out in the form of a harsh laugh, "She knows of us! You – with such a blatant disregard for our secrecy – even dare to beg for her life as she walks around with the knowledge that could destroy us."

"Brother! Peace." Aro chided, sensing the tirade Caius was about to begin if left to continue. He turned at that moment, gauging both of his brother's expressions. Caius was irritated as per usual and Marcus… well he was just Marcus. He was staring at some cracks in the far wall with a blank expression.

"She won't… tell." Ajmer's voice was pained as Aro turned back to him, knowing this battle was lost. "Please don't. Don't hurt her. I'll take her – I'll change her I swear it."

Aro shook his head. Back in March Edward and Alice Cullen had visited his coven along with Edward's human girlfriend, and Aro had allowed them to leave. He had done this as a favor to his old friend, and the young one's coven leader, Carlisle and he still regret the decision to this day. He knew that the vision Alice showed him of Isabella Swan's change was not concrete. Even his call to Carlisle a few day's later, where Carlisle assured him that after Isabella graduated high school she'd be changed, didn't calm his nerves.

For him to allow Isabella Swan freedom as a human for another year – as she had only entered her senior year in September and it was now January – was extremely foolish. Caius liked to remind him _daily_ about the huge breach of secrecy he allowed as a favor to a friend.

He'd never live it down within the coven and if he were ever so lenient again the immortal world would begin to question their ruling, which was unacceptable.

But Aro knew his brother's would not begrudge him adding Castiel to the coven. After all they had in fact been looking for someone with an ability like hers long before Alice Cullen was born. Such a guard would make a wondrous addition to their coven!

So luckily an alternative could be found for Ajmer's human friend.

"Do not fret Ajmer," Aro sighed airily as he waved for Alec to come forward, "I have no intention of harming your charming _Castiel_."

And all Ajmer could hope as he was dismissed, as well as threatened against trying to find Castiel and warn her, was that his little human friend would see what was coming for her in time to run.

Over the next week, the six other vampires' that Castiel found friends in were bought to the Volturi for questioning, the names of each immortal having been retrieved from Ajmer's memories of the conversations he had had with Castiel.

Merida from Romania, Charlotte and Lee from Mexico, Alexander from Ireland, Yakone from Canada, and Lizza from North America were all subjected to show Aro their thoughts. Each vampire's memories supplied Aro with more information on the young seer and his excitement at finding such a talent in a human was only increased with each new thought. Every immortal seemed to have lived with the hope that memories and mention of Castiel would not cross the Volturi's notice until she had lived and died in a human's natural lifespan. That way any argument of law breaking would be nearly moot since she'd already had died.

Of course, they all knew they could still be tried and charged in the Volturi's court for the security breach they made, but the punishment would have been much lighter than what was usually given after her death. They all believed with the deepest parts of their soul's that Castiel was trustworthy and their secrets were safe with her. All were so very protective of her it astounded Aro at first, and he had to threaten each of them that interference with his coven upholding the law would end in terrible punishment.

Humans were such fickle creatures, and while Aro held complete respect for the loyalty that the vampire's brought to him so surely believed she held, he could not convince himself that she was no threat. He would not make the same mistake he made with Isabella Swan.

* * *

And that was what had bought Felix and Demetri to this point. Their masters had discussed in the privacy of Aro's quarters for nearly forty hours what they would do about this breach, and after all the evidence was bought forth the decision was made to add Castiel to the guard. And in the end, rather than send one of the lower ranking coven members to dispose of the human, _they_ were sent to retrieve her for trial with or without her cooperation.

* * *

**_A/N: As you see, I drew out the Twilight Saga's timeline a bit to allow things to happen at a more reasonable pace. Imagine Bella came to Forks in her sophomore year, was attacked by James at the end of said year, had her 17th birthday party in the beginning of junior year only for the Cullen's to leave and return after the events in Volterra late March. Bella, Alice, and Edward are now in their senior year and it is early January where our story begins._ **

**_(7 Pages, 3,080 Words)_ **


	2. Taken

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note: In this story Aro did not kill his sister. Werewolves killed her during the Volturi's war with the Romanians. I plan to have this story revolve with the Volturi's strength as a family and a coven.

After blowing her nose for what felt like the hundredth time Castiel rest her head on her desk. The congestion in her sinuses was causing her head to throb painfully, as if a tiny person was bashing a hammer against the inside of her skull.

She had gotten a cold around two weeks previously and had been battling the stupid virus every day. She didn't get sick often, but when she did it was usually bad like this, and it wasn't abnormal for it to take her weeks to recover. But she had a feeling the cold would be letting up very very soon as just that morning she had begun to get her visions again… blurry as they may be.

She didn't like getting sick. She hated when she got colds because when she felt very congested and had bad headaches the visions she had lived with and operated her life around stopped abruptly, and she wouldn't start getting them again until her illness had passed.

Suddenly a warm, familiar, voice sounded from the doorway to her room, causing her to life her head.

"Hey sickie. I bought you some soup," Her best friend Trent smiled at her, indicating to the paper bowl he had balanced on his palm, the word 'Panera' printed in green lettering on the side.

She just groaned at him, not really feeling that up for eating but knowing he wouldn't leave until she finished the soup he bought. He was correct in his nonverbal assumption that she hadn't eaten very much recently – because that's the only reason he would have gone out and bought back food for her without her asking – and he would undoubtedly be a pain in the ass until she ate. "Shouldn't you knock before entering someone's home?"

He rolled his eyes at her, pushing his shaggy dirty-blonde hair from his eyes as he set the steaming bowl of soup in front of her on the desk. He had basically become a permanent resident at her home over the last six months after he moved out of his apartment due to the irritating new roommates he had gotten when his original roommate from high school had moved out. He had ended his lease early and had issues finding another open apartment in the small town within budget, so Castiel's father had offered him the guest room free of charge since he was basically family.

"I think the proper response is "Thank you, you beautiful hunk of a man for bringing me and my dripping orifices food."" He smirked when Castiel went to throw her stapler at him and missed by a good two feet, causing it to go through the open doorway and land in the hall.

Castiel sighed as she stared at the stapler on the floor and shrugged as she decided to nurse her wounded pride and refuse to get up and get it. "Thanks for the soup though, I really do appreciate it."

Trent laughed before looking around her room as she began to push the noodles around the bowl with her spoon. It was as clean as always: her bed was made, her shoes were stacked neatly on the shoe rack under the window, her dresser had tomorrow's outfit folded on top of it and her desk had only her laptop and sketchbook set on it, both of which she had haphazardly pushed away when he set the soup down. The only thing out of place was her trashcan, which was overflowing with tissues next to her nightstand instead of next to the desk where she usually had it.

"I don't know how you can take the time to keep your room this clean. When I'm sick it looks like a tornado hit." he flopped backwards onto her bed while she started eating her soup and cringed as the springs made an unhealthy grinding noise. She really needed a new mattress.

"It gets boring being stuck inside all day," she said with a shrug after a scarfing down a few mouthfuls of the scalding soup. She hadn't realized she had been so hungry. "And dad had been so busy at the firehouse this week since the pipe burst at the county firehouse two towns over. I haven't seen him in almost three days he's been working so many extra shifts."

Trent's expression was sympathetic as he noticed how much this upset her, "Well he is fire chief," he reasoned, "This stuff just kind of falls on him ya know? Wasn't he supposed to be home early tonight?"

Wheeling around in her desk chair, Castiel turned to look at her best friend, "He was," she verified, "But his old Marine buddies are back in town today and he called to tell me he's meeting them at the bar after work and not to wait up for him."

Trent thought hard for a moment, gauging her expression as he contemplated what to do. Originally he had planned to pick up an extra shift at the body shop where he worked part time, but he could see that his best friend was a bit down in the dumps after being cooped up in the house for days on end with no one to really talk to as he himself had been busy with work and school.

"Hey how about I go stop at the ACME around the corner and get some ice cream or something?" He suggested, trying to cheer her up, "I can also grab a Red Box movie for us to watch tonight. I was thinking comedy, but we can go the horror movie route if you're up for it?"

Castiel smiled at him. Trent wasn't really a big fan of horror movies, so it was nice of him to give the option since it was one of her favorite genres. "That would be awesome, can you grab some orange juice too? Maybe if I get some more Vitamin C in my system I'll be able to breathe out of my nose by tomorrow."

She stood when he nodded his affirmation of her words and gave him a quick thank you hug before walking him to the front door.

He smirked down at her as they walked along the small path to the driveway where Trent had parked his truck, before uttering in a teasing tone, "Yeah yeah you won't be able to convince me that the reason for wanting to get better is anything more than the desire to have your freaky visions again."

His comment would have been met with an elbow to the ribs if he didn't dodge her arm.

"Yeah well, I hate flying blind. I'm so used to having some kind of advanced notice to basically… well… everything in my life that getting sick and losing that ability kind of sucks. How would you feel if you lost the ability to use your left arm or something when you get sick?"

Trent ruffled her hair as he unlocked the door to the cab and climbed into the driver's seat before leaning out of the open window so they could finish talking.

"You know I'm only teasing you Cassy-frass," He smirked when she scowled at the nickname and fixed her hair, "I'll see you in like… fifteen minutes tops."

He started up the truck while Castiel head back into the house, shutting and locking the door behind her before heading down the hall to the bathroom. Flicking on the bright light mounted over the mirror above the sink, she studied her reflection.

Her dark red hair fell down to her waist in perfect heavy ringlets – something that was really extremely impressive since it had been like… four days since she last brushed her hair – and her already pale skin looked even whiter than usual as the freckles that were scattered across her nose and cheeks seem to have lost some pigment during the days of her illness.

Her nose, however, was bright red from the constant rubbing and nose blowing she had been doing over the last few days. And her short stature looked even smaller than usual due to the baggy sweats and t-shirt she was wearing, the T-shirts being one of her dads old firehouse shirts that no longer fit him after he started working out again so it was nearly two sizes too big.

Figuring that she would feel a little better if she at least dressed like she wasn't sick she head back to her room and changed into some dark blue jeans and a warm crème colored sweater. She had hardly put back on her tattered purple sneakers when she heard a low knock sounding at the door.

She froze momentarily, surprised by the sound since she was used to having some… forewarning of visitors. It was already dark outside so there was really no explanation as to why someone was knocking on the door at this hour.

Cautiously peaking out the door to her room – as the door to her room had a direct line of sight to the front door – she noticed the faded leather wallet sitting on the kitchen counter by the door.

Of course, she sighed mentally, Trent would forget his wallet

Without a further thought she traveled down the hall, snatching the wallet off the counter as she went and unlocking the door without glancing up it. She pulled the door open and held the item out without hesitation.

Over the years, her visions had made her almost foolishly comfortable in the decisions she made. There was never a reason to think about the pros and cons of her choices when she already knew the outcome of the things she decided to do. So she didn't even think about what could be lurking outside in the darkness of night, not even remembering that at this moment in time her visions were not present to guide her, so she would never know if the choice she made was the wrong one.

And opening the door… was certainly the wrong decision now.

"As much as we appreciate the hand-out," A deep unfamiliar voice fell upon her ears, the tone of it teasing, "We don't really need any money."

She froze, her eyes snapping up to meet the striking, scarlet eyes of the vampires currently at the door.

Instinctively, she began to back away. Her eyes widening in fright as she took in the massive figure of the larger vampire standing a step back from the one with the tousled hair – the one who had obviously made the teasing jab due to his smirk.

Castiel had been caught completely off guard and she hated it. What was more was the fact that she had no idea who these two vampires were. Going down her mental checklist for signs of danger – signs suck as black eyes or a tense, coiled posture – she was given a little relief upon noticing the two at the door didn't look hungry or angry. But it was relief that didn't last long for moments later the lean vampire entered the room with his hulking companion reaching out to place his palm against the door and force it further open.

"W-Who're you?" She stuttered, tripping a little bit over her feet as she continued walking backward.

The big one smirked.

"I thought they said the human we were getting was psychic Demetri," he teased, eyes flashing wickedly as he shut the door behind him, effectively trapping Castiel in with them, "Are you sure we found the right house?"

The lean one – Demetri – rolled his eyes, but he still did not miss the expression of horror on Castiel's face when Felix said the word "psychic". This was all the conformation Felix needed that she was indeed the right girl… not that he thought she wasn't the one they were looking for.

"Of course, Felix," Demetri said in a bored tone, calling Felix's jest, "And while I can't answer why she doesn't know who we are… you can see in her eyes that she knows what we are."

"And what we are-," Demetri directed his gaze back at the startled human girl they were slowly stalking backwards down the hall, "-are members of the Volturi guard. We were sent to retrieve you for trial."

Castiel stopped moving, causing the two men to halt as well. She had heard of the Volturi. Every single one of the vampires she knew had warned her about them. From what she had been told she knew the Volturi were the rulers of the vampire race, the rulers of the supernatural world, and they upheld the laws of secrecy of their kind. And the very most important law there was, was that their world, their species, could not be exposed to a human. If a human was to be let in on the secret the human either had to be changed, or the threat they posed to the secret must be silenced. Permanently.

Had one of her friends turned her in? Or had the Volturi found out about her somehow and now one of her friends was in danger because of her knowledge? She knew the punishment for such treason… was severe.

Thinking hard, Castiel debated what she could do. Perhaps she could distract them and somehow escape out the window in her bedroom? She was on the first floor so it wouldn't be more than a few-foot drop to the ground. Maybe, if she got outside and caused enough of a scene, they would run off? Or if she could just stall them long enough until Trent got back…

But she squashed that thought the moment it entered her head, what if they just killed Trent for bearing witness to them being here?

"Demetri," The deep voice of Felix broke the silence, "Let's be done with this. I can hear the girl's friend returning."

Realizing she was officially out of time to do anything but act, Castiel turned on her heal and bolted into her room, slamming the door shut behind her with a loud bang. She ran quickly over to the window, which she had cracked open hours before to bring some fresh air into her room, and hardly had time to force it the rest of the way up and clamber through the frame before a cold hand locked like a vice around her ankle and yanked her back into the room.

She hit the floor first, effectively knocking the wind out of her before the giant Felix hauled her up against him, his arms wrapped around her torso pinning her arms to her sides and her back to his front.

Struggling, she kicked her legs out, knocking her lamp off her bedside table and causing it to shatter against the floor. The room became shrouded in darkness as Felix swung her form around, toward the open bedroom door, while trying to grab her legs to hold her still. He didn't manage to grab her fast enough however, and she kicked her mirror effectively causing a downpour of broken mirror shards on her legs and across the carpet.

"Fuck!" Felix growled. He didn't think that a hundred-pound human girl could possibly put up this kind of fight! She seemed to have gotten her breath back as well, for only a moment later she started to scream at the top of her lungs. Her yell was hoarse though, whether it was because of the sickness he could smell in her blood or because she was unaccustomed to screaming, he didn't know.

Impatiently he slapped a hand over her mouth and nose, muffling her yells as she continued to kick, looking over at his companion.

Demetri was leaning against the doorjamb, with blue latex gloves on his hands as he filled a syringe with the contents of a small glass bottle he had previously stored in his pocket.

Felix's look was questioning as Demetri hid the empty bottle away in the interior of his coat and drifted toward him as he held the still struggling girl.

"I picked this up from Arkos before we left the castle," he explained, "he assured me this would be enough to help her sleep for the trip back to Italy so she wouldn't be panicking the entire time. Now hold her as still as you can."

Castiel, who had been so distracted struggling against Felix she barely had time to register his words, began to thrash so hard as Demetri approached her that Felix tightened his grip on her to the point of pain.

She could feel hot tears running from her eyes, trying to plead with them not to do this as her thrashing amounted to nothing, but her voice was still muffled from Felix's hand.

Demetri sighed and tore the sleeve to her sweater near her upper arm with one fluid motion, sticking her with the needle and pressing the plunger down in the next second. The effect the tranquilizer was fast, and her body relaxed within a minute as she continued to weep into Felix's hand, who had begun shushing her and stroking her hair with an uncomfortable look on his face.

Not even a full two minutes had passed before Castiel was unconscious, and Felix waited for Demetri to duck out the window before passing Castiel to him and squeezing his body through afterwards. Once out on the lawn beside the house Demetri passed Castiel back to Felix – who was much more suited to carrying due to his vast size – and they launched themselves into the surrounding forest behind her home and the other homes on this side of the road.

As they ran through the brush, dodging large oak and pine trees, Demetri and Felix knew they would be long gone before any search would start for Castiel.

"I don't know about you," Felix said lowly as they ran, trying to ignore the guilty feeling that bubbled up inside of him every time he glance down at the human in his arms, "But I think that that goes on my list of the top ten most fucked up things I have done this century."

Demetri paused before nodding curtly, though he disagreed with Felix's statement.

He felt this probably deserved a place on the list of the top ten worst things he had done in the last ten centuries. He was used to hunting people down and dragging them back to Volterra, sometimes dragging his prey kicking and screaming the whole way back, but he was not used to bringing a human back. Especially not a young human girl who they had very obviously terrified half to death by drugging and kidnapping her.

He knew that he and Felix would have to make it up to her at some point during their coming years on the guard together.

"Aro I think you should seriously reconsider your decision."

Back in Volterra, the kings were sitting on the couches in front of the roaring fire in Aro's study. Sulpicia was on her husband's lap while Caius had his arm wrapped around Athenadora, holding her snugly against his side. It was Marcus who had spoken, and he was standing, facing the fire with his back to them.

Marcus had been focusing on his "bond sight" for the last hour, observing the multi-colored bond-strands moving and humming among his family. He couldn't help but think of how blessed he was to be part of a coven who cared as strongly for each other as they did.

Over the millennia the vampires they ruled over had become convinced that the Volturi powerhouse was one whose stability was built on a lust for power rather than actual love for one another. These vampires were so very wrong. The bonds between he and his siblings were as strong as familia bonds could possibly get, which was saying a lot since a vampire's range of emotion were a thousand times that of a human's.

He had watched the vibrant metallic colored bonds that linked mates hum between his brothers and their wives. Their bonds were warm and solid, and seeing them left an ache in his heart as he remembered Didyme and mourned for the loss of his own bond. But the sight of his brother's bonds to their mates also left a slight sting as his mating bond to Didyme was only half that of his family's and he had been mourning his loss for over three thousand years.

"Ah brother," Aro sighed, his voice taking on the same persuasive edge he always used when he wanted something, "You must consider the risk the human poses. We cannot have another situation like Isabella Swan, secrecy breaches like this cannot just be ignored."

What Aro couldn't understand, what he really couldn't place his finger on, was what exactly had changed in the last couple weeks that had caused his brother to become so… animated. Marcus had done a complete one-eighty, having gone from not caring about anything at all to suddenly entertaining conversation.

Like he was doing right now, arguing against the unanimous decision they had all come to together about bringing the human in for trial.

"It is not that I am against upholding the law brother. But kidnapping a young girl from her home? What about the potential search that will arise from her going missing? Can we just consider the fact that-,"

"Marcus," Caius interrupted, feeling slightly unsettled over how emotional his brother suddenly was. Marcus had not cared about anything since Didyme's passing during the war. "I don't understand what has gotten into you! Not that we aren't… ecstatic that you are err… speaking to us again," he shared a sideways glance with Aro, "But you must consider that the human might come willingly and if she does then there will not be a search! The only other option for the girl is death."

"And if she doesn't come willingly perhaps death would be the better option? Rather than causing both the human pain and those she knows excess turmoil." Marcus bit back before turning to face his brothers, "Perhaps we should consider an alternative method of-,"

He was interrupted this time by the vibration of Aro's phone. And Aro gave him an apologetic look before removing his phone from his pocket and checking the caller ID.

He slid his finger across the touch screen device to answer the call, but there was no need to hold it up to his ear. Their hearing was superior enough that he could have left it in his pocket and spoken through the fabric and no one would have an issue hearing the conversation.

"Demetri." Aro greeted, lazily turning the phone over and over in his fingers, "I hope all is well?"

"Everything is fine Master," The guard's voice echoed through the phone while Athenadora stood from her place at Caius' side to stand by Marcus, gently resting her hand against his arm and giving him a soft smile of not quite understanding, but of tenderness.

Athenadora and Marcus got along very well. Both of them had more compassionate natures than the rest of their family and therefore were viewed as the humanitarians of the group. She didn't understand why he was having an outburst of emotion about someone whom he had never met, but she certainly did understand his reasoning for being against forcing the young psychic here.

"We have the human," Demetri cleared his throat unnecessarily, hinting at obvious discomfort over something unknown, "However she did not come willingly. She put up a decent fight against Felix and I… had to sedate her-," All eyes were on Marcus then as he let out a saddened sigh before sitting in one of the chairs closest to the fire, letting his head fall into his hands and rubbing his face.

Athenadora continued to stand beside him loyally, her hand on his shoulder, while Caius giving her a grateful smile for comforting their brother. Aro's expression was radiating disapproval as he registered what Demetri had said, but he didn't interrupt him as he continued, "She broke multiple things in her room. We did not have time to clean up the mess as a friend of hers was returning to the home. There will undoubtedly be a report, but we are sure we did not leave any traces."

Aro nodded solemnly, "And I take it you are leaving for Volterra now?"

"Yes Master," Demetri affirmed, "Felix has just entered the jet with Castiel. She should remain asleep until we arrive in Volterra around 8 o'clock."

And with a quick farewell to the young guard, Aro ended the call, watching his brother lift his head from his hands and lean back while shutting his eyes and looking like the conversation on the phone had aged him a hundred more years.

It was silent for a few moments with the only sound being when Athenadora moved to sit with Caius again. Marcus did not bother to open his eyes or move at all when he spoke next.

"There is no point in asking why our methods with this human are bothering me to this extent for I do not know. But I am open to a debate."

Aro, Caius, and their wives smiled. Perhaps a debate with one another was just was they needed to take the depressing edge of this conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revised January 18th, 2021
> 
> (10 Pages, 4,291 Words)


	3. Trial

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day!

"Pretty little thing isn't she?" A deep voice asking in what barely more than a whisper was rousing Castiel from the thick fog of medicinal sleep.

"Yes," Another voice… this time she recognized it as Demetri, agreed, "Abnormally pretty for a human none the less."

Castiel was obviously hearing the tail end of a conversation she was not meant to be present for. Her whole body felt as though it weighed a ton, and an even more persistent weight was pressing into her stomach making it harder to expand her lungs to take in a full breath. Forcing her eyes open the first thing she registered was a moving cobblestone floor.

She was being carried. The tallest vampire, Felix if she was remembering correctly, and she wasn't so sure she was since she was beyond disoriented, had her body slung over his shoulder. The weight that made it difficult to breathe was his shoulder pressing into her stomach.

Numb from shock, Castiel tried to move her hair from her face and grunted in frustration when she realized her hands were tied behind her back. This immediately caught both vampires' attentions.

"You should put her down Felix." Demetri said, halting in his stride, "She's waking up and doesn't look too comfortable."

They had only entered the city and the underground tunnels within it around fifteen minutes prior to her regaining consciousness. If they had ran they would already be within the castle, probably already starting the trial, but they had to wait for her to wake up. They wanted her to be aware of her surroundings and what was happening during the confrontation. Trying to jostle her awake in front of the Masters would only cause unnecessary panic.

"If I cut your hands free you have to swear you won't try to hit us." Felix stated as her came up behind Castiel, not waiting for her response as he withdrew a small pocketknife from the interior of his jacket and sliced through the rope binding her hands. "We only restrained you for your own protection."

Castiel already knew well enough that hitting a vampire would only result in a broken hand, so his warning was completely unnecessary. Nonetheless she still nodded, rubbing her slightly pink wrist to soothe the minor rug burn.

Resting a hand on her shoulder Felix began to steer her forward before she surprised him by turning on her heel to glare at him, snapping, "I can walk thanks!"

There was a surprised silence for half a heartbeat before Demetri sighed, motioning for the two to follow him.

"You'd do well to watch your tone around here Castiel," he warned, "The Masters don't take very kindly to cheek."

He wasn't really trying to sound like he was chastising her, honestly, he was just trying to give her advice that would keep her safe. He understood why she would be upset and angry because Felix did have a habit of dragging people around, but she really did need to learn to watch her mouth. If she took that tone with Master Caius… he shook his head at the thought, she would be changed and forced to live without her tongue for a month.

Castiel scoffed as she followed him with Felix a few steps behind her. She mumbled "Stop acting like you're on my side." under her breath.

He almost winced. He knew that due to her supposed gift she would become a rather high-ranking member of the guard right away, meaning they would be spending a lot of time together in the very near future. Starting off with animosity between one another was not going to be a good thing.

And so, they continued silently through the dark tunnels. Felix had reached forward to grab Castiel's elbow multiple times when they came through areas that had uneven footing because any non-immortals who came through here would usually have trouble seeing their feet and trip. Normally such things amused them, but neither Felix nor Demetri were looking forward to the telling off they would get from Aro if she came in all scraped up because they kept letting her fall.

But Castiel didn't seem to need any help. She would neatly step over protruding stones and hop areas of the floor that dipped down due to the natural changes in the earth over the centuries. Both vampires knew that there was no way she could see very well, and when Demetri looked back at her as she veered around some loose stones on the floor, he saw that her pupils were blown wide. The powder blue irises of her eyes were just thin rings.

"How can you see down here?" Demetri asked, stopping in his track down the corridor.

This caused Castiel to stop too, and he watched in fascination as her pupils shrunk and her irises returned to normal size.

"Hm?" She looked slightly confused as she met his eyes, having not been paying attention to anything other than the extra sight that had come back to her once she woke from her stupor. She was keeping it simple and only watching her immediate future, keeping her mind a few seconds ahead of her body.

"He asked how you can see down here," Felix repeated, stopping alongside Castiel to look into her eyes himself, curious as to what Demetri was staring at.

She shrugged, "I can't. You kept grabbing my arm so I figured there was some possibility I might fall or something. I was just watching a little bit ahead to see if I would trip, and if I was going to, I just changed course so I wouldn't."

Castiel was so nonchalant in her statement that both vampires had no idea how to respond for a moment.

"So, you weren't watching your feet as much as you were watching your future and planning accordingly?" Demetri mused, "You seem to have a lot of control over your ability."

"I guess," Castiel shrugged again, being psychic was natural for her and hearing Demetri talk about it like what she could do was abnormal, but not totally unexpected, was strange to her.

He caught onto her unspoken confusion, "It's just uncommon for the gifted humans we do rarely find to have any control over whatever ability they may have. I assure you I only meant what I said as a good thing."

She nodded at him, not really having anything more to say, and after a moment he watched as her pupils dilated again, her irises shrinking to be only thin blue rings.

It truly was fascinating to see that her physical body had its own indicators of her gift. So together they carried on through the tunnels, Felix striking up a conversation with Demetri about sports now that he didn't have to concern himself with the human getting herself hurt. It would be at least another quarter hour of walking at her pace before they reached the castle, and another quarter after that before they would reach the throne room.

Aro's Office

When Aro had heard back from Demetri around sunset, the call indicating that they had arrived just outside the city, he summoned his family back to his office to talk before the undoubtedly interesting trial pertaining to Castiel.

Caius was sharing the second loveseat across from himself and his lovely wife Sulpicia with Athenadora, playing idly with a strand of her hair while Marcus lounged across the couch between the two seats, his feet propped up on one armrest and his head on the other. To outsiders his brother would look completely relaxed, even asleep, with his eyes shut and breathing so deep and steady.

But Aro knew he was anything but. Aro was aware of the turmoil Marcus was feeling below his calm façade.

The debate they had hours before really didn't lead to any possible cause or solution to his feelings over the expected arrival of this human. Marcus was considerably distressed over the actions they had taken, and they were usually so much more... harsh when dealing with matters such as the security and secrecy of their race.

"So, the human has arrived, Marcus has lost his ever-loving mind, and you interrupted the rather enjoyable time I was having with Athenadora for this thrilling get together?" Caius asked with a joking smirk on his face after a few minutes of silence.

If it were possible Athenadora would have blushed, but instead she just rolled her eyes, opting for nonchalance, while Marcus reached behind his head to the small side table to toss one of Aro's expensive crystal drinking glasses at his brother.

Caius laughed as he caught the glass before it hit him, and Aro couldn't help but smile at their antics. But he had not called his family together just to pick fun at Marcus for finally coming back to some semblance of life with the grand overreactions he was having these last couple of weeks.

"You know I wouldn't call us all together for no reason Caius," Aro said in the usual slightly manic tone he had when he was excited about something. "I wanted to discuss what steps we plan to take once we meet our soon-to-be youngest guard."

Marcus wanted to groan. Of course, the human's fate was already decided. Aro would not have gone through the trouble of getting her here if he were just going to kill the girl on arrival. But it still frustrated him, this blatant disregard of her free will, just because she was a human and it was assumed she would be eager for immortality.

"I know what you are thinking brother." Aro angled his body to face Marcus, Sulpicia sitting back so that they could talk more easily. Aro had seen enough of Marcus' thoughts over the last day to know how he felt in very fine detail. "I do not disregard her as a person, nor do I believe she has no right to make her own choices, but I do not think that she will come here and simply choose to die-,"

"But what if she does choose that Aro?" Marcus sat up on the couch, leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees and his hands folded together, "What if Castiel does choose that she does not want immortality and would rather take death? She did not come her willingly! Would you force this girl to be a guard? Just because she has an ability that we all understand would be great to help maintain secrecy?"

Aro ran his hand through his raven hair with a sigh, Marcus' tone was bordering on hostility, and that was not a common way any of his family spoke to one another.

Well besides Caius of course, but that was simply how he always was.

"No," Aro stated simply, "If the girl-,"

"Castiel." Sulpicia said softly, interrupting her husband with a hand on his knee. "We best start calling her by her name. It isn't respectful to refer to her as if she is an infant. 'The girl' 'the human' 'the child'… she is a grown woman by all worldly standards, and we should show her the same respect we hope she shows us."

She looked around at her family as they nodded their agreement, and Aro ran his fingers through her dark hair as he smiled appreciatively.

"You are right as always darling. Thank you." Aro said softly, kissing her lightly below the ear before continuing his previous statement.

"If Castiel does decide, and tells us all aloud so there is no miscommunication, that she would rather die when we meet her tonight… I will not fight her decision. I will end her as painlessly as possible and we will move on from this whole ordeal."

Caius nodded in agreement along with Sulpicia and Athenadora, but no one missed the suddenly uncomfortable look on Marcus' face, or the fact that his hand which had previously been lying flat on his chest suddenly clutched at the fabric of his suit.

"Marcus?" Athenadora stood from Caius' lap, flashing over to her brother's side in the next moment with concern flooding her face, "Are you alright?"

Marcus wasn't listening, he was instead slipping into bond-sight. This was the term his family had come up with to identify his gift. His bonds to his family and the guard were exactly as they had always been, the thickest and brightest of the bonds he had were the strands indicating his familia bonds… that is the bonds that that tied his family to himself and to one another. The bonds to his personal guards and the elite guard were also well off, strong and changing from color to color respectively. And the rest of the bonds he had – the ones that tied him to the lesser guard and the other acquaintances he had made over the years, thus being the dullest of his connections – were completely unchanged.

Marcus' gift was very complicated but very simple at the same time. He saw what bonded people to one another in the form of strands or cords.

When someone meets another person, a strand connects him or her together. The line usually starts out thin and grey and will change color and thickness with time. The thickness of the bond – whether it looks like a strand of hair or a thick-coiled chain – indicates the bonds intensity, whether it is weak and truly unsubstantial or strong and unbreakable. The color of a bond however usually indicated what type of bond it was. Metallic colors usually indicated family, while gold indicated love and mating. Other colors would symbolize loyalty, trust, jealousy, anger and even hatred.

Every person creates a bond with another upon meeting. If one were to enter a store to buy a pack of gum a bond would spring up between themself and the salesclerk. It would undoubtedly be thin and grey looking – wispy like a spider web – and would disappear not to long after meeting having had no time to neither grow nor be nurtured.

However, some bonds could start off very strong. Sometimes people would just click for lack of a better term. Like when a new mother holds her baby for the first time, most often the bond would start out to be startlingly bright, a shining silver chain attaching the mother to her infant. Bonds like that were natural bonds of love that came without effort.

But Marcus' attention was now focused on an entirely different bond. This particular bond had come from Marcus himself over two decades before hand. The moment the bond came into existence he felt it, and a vampire physically being able to feel a bond was only possible when a vampire found their mate.

But this bond was not a mating bond. It simply couldn't have been. It was completely white in color and resembled a chain, it was thicker upon its creation than any bond Marcus had ever had, those to his family included. Even now it was the same strength as when he had first seen it though he had never nurtured this bond it never lost any of it's… power.

Oh, what a stir this bond had caused among his family all those years ago.

Marcus was sitting on his throne that night many years ago and the room was silent aside from the quiet conversation between his brothers, and the conversations of the guards who were in attendance. He was staring at a crack in the wall to the right of him when he felt the pull on his chest, he felt as if he were being yanked forward, and when he had stumbled out of his throne his brothers had both come to his aid.

That night they discovered this strange bond, and in the privacy of his chambers his family went into deep discussion about it and what it could be. It was as thick as they believed any bond could really get, but it had no color or destination. It wasn't even grey and initially most bonds were grey if they didn't already have a real color indicating what they were. Marcus had never seen a white bond before.

Aro had concluded that the bond was completely undecided just as most new bonds were, but it perhaps just couldn't be grey because of the strength it was upon its appearance.

They all ended up agreeing with his idea and for the most part forgot about the bond after that. However, the first year or so after its discovery Marcus did travel with Caius on plenty of missions where it wasn't really necessary for them both to go. He had been encouraged to go because they had agreed it might be a possible way to figure out where the bond was leading.

But this had never happened before! No one had ever seen a bond pop up from one person to an unknown source. Demetri could not even lend much help due to the fact no one had even the slightest clue who they were looking for. No one in the coven had ever met the recipient, or anyone who knew the recipient, of this bond to Marcus

But Athenadora did have a possible idea around a month after Marcus had seen the bond that resulted in them summoning a nomad by the name of Omar. Omar was a very scholarly vampire, he had met Aro around two thousand years previously, and helped write multiple books with him about everything one could possibly know about the vampire race (of course there was only one copy of each of these books and they were kept in Aro's study).

When Omar arrived in the Volturi library in early February of 1996, he was greeted by the sight of the ancients and their wives gathered around a table with one of the books he had helped write lying open, surrounded by pages of notes and parchment.

With one look at the open book and the passage written on it, Omar asked his question, which was only one word.

"Imprinting?"

One might have heard of imprinting in the terms of a shape shifter finding a person whom was best to pass down the shifting gene too, but to a vampire imprinting was so… so much more.

While imprinting was very common for shifters, it was unbelievably rare for vampires. There were only three known cases as far back as they could possibly research. When a vampire imprinted it had nothing to do with furthering genetic lines – as immortals couldn't have children – it was a vampire finding their true other half. It was a vampire not just finding the missing half of their soul but finding their soul itself. A vampire with an imprint would literally do anything for and be anything their imprint needed.

Imprinting was sacred among the vampire race. Any vampire with venom in their body would be able to see the vitality of a bond like that. The imprint would be undoubtedly safe for it was blasphemy to kill the imprint of another, you just don't destroy a man that way.

And while Athenadora's idea was good, it didn't lead anywhere. Omar said that the only cases of imprinting they knew begun when the vampire laid eyes on their imprint, and he simply had no idea what Marcus' new bond could mean.

"Marcus?" Athenadora asked again, touching the hand that was resting over his heart and bringing him back into the present.

"I'm fine Athenadora." Marcus breathed, "That bond just… I felt it again."

This easily got everyone in the room's attention, but before Aro could ask any questions Marcus just shook his head. "Now isn't the time for this." He was stubbornly determined to ignore the strange tugging as there were more important things on hand at the moment than a bond that had been mostly inactive for over 21 years. "Castiel will be arriving soon and we have to figure out what we are going to do with her if she agrees to becoming part of our coven."

Aro wanted to argue, feeling as if this moment was exactly the time for this, but

Caius seemed to sense his feelings toward the issue and intervened on Marcus' behalf. "Marcus is right, we can deal with the bond later, but first we have to consider what we do if Castiel accepts being part of our guard. I know we usually chose an elite guard to take any newborns as their charge but… perhaps there should be an exception this time."

Everyone stared at Caius in confusion after he spoke, even Marcus, which prompted him to give an aggravated sigh and explain more fully, "Marcus you seem very protective of this human – sorry Castiel." He rephrased after he was glared at by Sulpicia, "So perhaps… you should take her as your charge."

Marcus expression was shocked, and as he looked around the room he was startled even further to see that his family seemed to agree with Caius.

"Yes Marcus," Athenadora said softly, understanding why this might be strange to him, "I know you don't usually care for these things, but perhaps you should take her under your wing. I fell like you would be more sympathetic to her feelings right now than most of the guard."

Marcus wanted to argue, he was confused as to why his family was so on board with the idea. The only one of them that ever took a charge was Aro, and even then, it was not common for his family to mix so personally with the guard as to be a newborn's direct mentor. Usually elite guards watched over the guards as a whole, middle tier guards would mentor low ranking ones, and so on.

But though he wanted to argue, something within him agreed. He couldn't fathom why he had even an inkling of… care at the idea of helping this young woman. He really didn't care much for anything in his life besides his family. And even then it was mostly a boring life for him, for a life without a mate was a curse.

After a moment's thought Marcus nodded silently, causing Caius to grin victoriously before following up with the next most important question.

"Alright," he clapped his hands together, "Now that that is settled. Are you going to sire her Aro or will you look to Demetri to find a guard who-,"

A flash of heat seemed to ripple down Marcus' spine and a sharp "No." passed his lips.

Everyone turned to look at him. Each of them wore nearly comical expressions of surprise on their face when they noticed how tense Marcus had gotten, and how his eyes which had been a light burgundy only moment before hand has gone black as pitch.

"No," Marcus repeated, softer this time, as if he was getting a grip on himself. "If you insist I mentor her I plan to do it right and sire her myself."

Where had this come from? Only mere seconds ago he had been appalled at the idea of mentoring this girl when she was a newborn, why was he suddenly so…

Possessive.

Aro flashed over to Marcus' side, clapping him hard on the shoulder appreciatively, choosing not to acknowledge his brother's expression because he really pleased with how well everything was turning out.

"Well now that this is mostly settled, why don't we prepare to meet our young Castiel?"

Waking up being carried over a vampires shoulder was strange. And walking through a many centuries old tunnel system was strange. But Castiel didn't find either of those two things quite as strange as encountering the very sleek looking elevator at the end of one of the tunnels; an elevator that looked like it should be in a five-star hotel.

Demetri and Felix didn't hesitate in their step to lead her into the elevator, and they all stood in a tense silence as elevator proceeded to take them up multiple floors and let them off in an over-the-top sort of lobby. There was a large mahogany desk that took up most of the left wall, and at it sat a pretty olive-skinned human woman who looked to be in her early thirties typing away on a sleek looking silver pc.

She stood upon seeing them and gave them a very large smile and a cheerful greeting in Italian. However, when the women's eyes roamed to meet Castiel's, the look of friendliness vanished and was instead replaced by confusion.

Castiel didn't have time to address the look, because before she could even say anything, Felix rest his hand on the small of her back and steered her to another elevator on the opposite side of the room where Demetri patiently holding the door.

Once they were in Demetri thanked the woman, calling her Gianna, as the elevator doors closed and took them back down multiple floors.

"What's the point in going up that far if we'd just have to take another elevator down?" Castiel inquired, turning to Demetri with a raised brow.

"Not all of our tunnels are connected in a line," he said like it was obvious, "nothing here is designed as a pattern because it shouldn't be easy to follow. At street level, there is a very small section of our castle that is permitted for tours in the city. It is necessary to keep up the charade that the castle is smaller and uninhabited, and if you were to come through that way you would meet one of our secretaries."

"If you were here looking for us," He said 'us' in a way that clearly indicated he meant the Volturi as a whole, "You would have to find your way, not only through the castle, but also through multiple different lobbies. No human ever stumbles in here accidentally."

Castiel nodded her head, "But what if someone were to just come through the tunnels?"

Felix sighed at her words, but Demetri didn't mind this line of questioning. Usually the people he bought through here were either too frightened or too stupid to notice any of the things she was asking about.

"If they were to find one of the secret entrances, which is very unlikely but I digress, they would have to lift grates or covers that are much too heavy for a human to lift and drop down over fifty feet without injury."

The doors to the elevator opened and they continued down a torch-lined hallway. It was all stone and very wide, with little nooks that held marble statues and other very expensive looking things on pedestals. The further they walked they began to encounter paintings which Castiel was sure she would have stopped to look at if she weren't so distracted by the unpleasant business that was coming.

"But what if someone were to make it into the tunnels without hurting themselves?" She asked curiously, carrying on this conversation was better than walking along in silence anyway and she wasn't completely satisfied with the open-ended possibilities Demetri left by just dismissing methods of break in just because they were highly improbable.

Felix's deep chuckle sounded from behind her, "Well," he drawled "They would get so hopelessly lost they would either starve or freeze to death if they were human and one of us didn't find them first."

"What if they weren't human?"

"We would encounter them eventually. And if they did make it into the castle we would kill-," Demetri stopped short when he noticed Castiel wince but continued nonchalantly with words he felt would be less upsetting, "…Well since that hasn't happened yet we can only theorize what we would really do. I will let you know if I ever do get an answer to that though."

Castiel nodded knowing she had probably gone pale at the totally honest answer. She was feeling a little shaky now and startled slightly when Demetri held his arm out in front of her, the black leather jacket he had been wearing that she didn't notice him removing dangling from his hand.

"You're shivering." He explained at her confused look.

She hadn't even realized how cold it was until he said something, and she became aware of how stiff her posture was as she tried to suppress shivers. She had subconsciously assumed she was just rigid from stress since she knew any minute now, they would be coming to their destination.

Trying to bring a little bit of light back into their conversation and to fight off the slight nausea she suddenly felt, she pulled on Demetri's jacket mumbling, "I bet I could figure it out."

"Possibly," Demetri mused, watching as she pushed back the sleeves of his jacket to free her hands.

They didn't have to walk much farther, they only needed to turn the corner and head down one more hallway until they reached the set of massive double doors that opened into the council room, or as some liked to refer to it as "the throne room" even though it was not the only room in the castle with thrones.

Beyond the doors quiet conversation could be heard between some of the other guards who were already present and waiting for the trial, and though only Demetri and Felix could hear it, Castiel looked as if she could as well.

But that was only because of the nerves. The same nerves that caused her to suddenly falter in her step and stop walking, now too nervous to move.

Noticing this Demetri stepped beside her and placed his hand in the center of her back. Gently he pushed her forward, gauging her expression to be sure she wasn't going to throw up or anything. She was only human, so he wasn't sure if expecting her to keep her cool was too much to ask.

But when her expression suddenly became more impassive and her heart rate, which had begun to pick up moments before steadied into a normal rhythm, both he and Felix knew she had to be tougher than she looked.

Without further pause Felix moved forward and opened both doors to the room with one swift movement as Demetri pressed her forward, not stopping in his stride until they were all safely inside the room and the doors shut with their usual heavy bang.

Castiel knew that she would have never imagined being in a situation like this, and if she had imagined being brought to the rulers of the vampire race she certainly wouldn't have pictured being in a room as grand as this one.

The room seemed to be made up of mostly white marble, it was circular, with thin windows in the high domed ceiling which she could see stars through indicating that it was nighttime. At even intervals along the walls there were statues placed in recesses in the marble, some being statues of people on plinths made from different types of stone and others of animals that seemed to be made of a variety of precious metals.

And these stunning pieces of art were overshadowed by the fact that a dais took up the area of the wall adjacent to them, with three steps leading up to three extraordinarily intricate thrones, each seemingly handcrafted using rich, dark wood. On each of the steps there were words written in a language she didn't recognize, and she found herself itching to know what the words meant.

Taking in the room only took Castiel a second, and the grandeur of it all was lost to the fact that the room was decently populated by vampires in cloaks of varying shades of grey lining the walls, not including the five vampires who were situated on the dais that in comparison to their fellows looked much more menacing by their positions at the height of the room.

The thrones were occupied by three men whom Castiel's eyes seemed reluctant to focus on, while the throne in the center and the throne to her right also had extraordinarily beautiful vampire women standing behind them.

"Ah!" A deep masculine voice exhumed cheerfully as the man in the center throne stood, "Young Castiel, it is so wonderful to be meeting you at last!"

It was harder than she thought it would be to focus on the vampire who greeted her as her instincts argued with rational thought.

But she did, and he was not what she expected.

She had never imagined what to expect when she met the leader of the vampire race and sub sequentially the supernatural world, but it wasn't the handsome vampire descending the dais towards her with his arms spread in greeting.

He had straight raven black hair that was down to his shoulders, the texture making it look as though if she were to run her fingers through it, it would be like running her fingers through water. His handsome face showed that he couldn't have been changed any older than 35.

Standing at at about six feet tall, he was strong and lean, looking immaculate in his crisp black suit. The only color on him was the gold chain hanging around his neck bearing a family crest with a large V on a large pendant. At the bottom point of the V was a green stone, which she would have guessed to be an emerald.

While Aro had seen her in the countless memories of the immortals he had summoned over the recent weeks, meeting her in person was proving to be an experience of its own. She was shorter than he expected her to be, guessing that she was probably just barely 5 feet tall, and her scent was rather clean… like cool mint and fresh linen.

He hid his surprise on her attire, the only indicator of his thoughts being a fleeting glance in Demetri's direction. It wasn't exactly common for any of the guard to worry for the comfort of humans, so seeing Castiel in his jacket was certainly raising brows around the room.

Silently, Demetri held a hand out in Aro's direction, causing the latter to glide forward and grip his hand between both of his own for a long moment before releasing him and drifting back to his previous position, his red gaze now switching back to Castiel.

Castiel hadn't moved an inch during the strange moment the handsome leader and Demetri shared. It was obvious on her face that she didn't understand what had just occurred.

But remembering a conversation that seemed so long ago, one with her very first immortal friend Merida, Castiel recalled Merida telling her about some vampires being gifted just as she was. but that gifts came in many different forms. Merida was a mental shield and was completely delighted upon meeting Castiel because not only were gifted humans few and rare, but Castiel could see her regardless of her honed talent.

So, while she wasn't sure exactly what it was that the leader could do, Castiel knew that he must have been gifted and that it was best she remained cautious.

"Yes, it is very nice to finally meet you my dear," Aro sighed, drifting forward again until he was within a meter of her. "I have seen very delightful stories of you through the eyes of your many friends. My name is Aro and I assume you know who I am… as well as the reason you were summoned for trial?"

Summoned for trial? Castiel's brow furrowed as for the first time it occurred to her that she hadn't been kidnapped – she had been arrested.

"Your assumptions," Castiel chose her words carefully, "Were both correct and incorrect. I do not know exactly who you are, but I believe I do know why I am here."

And this was the truth. She knew by the way he spoke of her immortal friends that she was here because of the secrecy breach her knowledge of their kind created, and she felt the nausea resurface at what her being found guilty would mean.

Aro nodded mutely, all eyes in the room were focused on them besides those of Marcus as he had his head leaned back and his eyes closed.

Marcus wasn't so much mentally preparing himself for the coming months of taking care of a newborn as he was trying to ignore the strange feeling that had suddenly taken residence in his chest. It was not an unpleasant feeling… he felt very warm actually. Warm as if he were lying in the sun on a hot day and letting the heat relax him as he did his best to ignore the insistent tugging coming from his chest.

He knew what the tugging was. It was that god-forsaken bond that had chosen possibly the worst time to act up. He thought tiredly that mentoring the girl would be impossible in his current state. If he were to steadily be driven insane by this bond, he would rather do it in peace.

"I-," Aro had begun speaking again, "Am one of the three leaders of the Volturi coven. We are the ruling race of vampires and most supernatural species on this earth… so we're like the police in a way. Our most important law is the secrecy of our race which is vital to maintain peace."

His gaze was intense as he watched her process his words, and he continued without further pause.

"Humans are only meant to see us for what we are in the very brief moments before we feed, and if a human is let in on our secret… well I am afraid our laws are written in such a way that there are very few options for such… breaches in security."

Aro looked down at her imploringly, his expression very similar to the one her father would wear when he was waiting for her to admit something she had done wrong.

"The human must either be changed by the vampire who lets them in on the secret or die," Castiel said quietly, her voice hardly louder than a whisper. "I know." She directed her eyes at the floor for a moment to rein in her courage, studying Aro's expensive looking black shoes and taking a deep breath.

It was very hard to keep from trembling when her eyes found Aro's again, but she managed. "But-," she swallowed hard, figuring there was nothing more she could lose, "I wasn't told by any of the vampires I know. I found out on my own."

Silence met her words, as no one understood what she was getting at, so she was forced to explain. "So – so none of them should really be held responsible for… for me. Should they?"

Aro couldn't hide his surprised expression. Here she was in the deepest water she could possibly find herself in and she was trying to protect her immortal friends?

He could see why they were so fond of her.

"Normally they would be," Aro said honestly, "But under the circumstances they have not been tried for any crime, for I have seen exactly what you are trying to explain."

Aro clasped his hands behind his back for a moment, studying her stiff posture and the near vacant expression she wore. He wondered if she was very brave to not be in a pure state of panic at her situation or simply in a fair amount of shock. And when he caught sight of her trembling hands, he figured it was probably a little bit of both.

"But I am sure you are aware that you have not been brought here to be killed," his voice had taken on a soothing tone, "Your gift… holds such potential to be of real use to our world and for it to be wasted…" he shook his head, "To end your life would be a shame. There is another alternative we wish to offer you."

Aro extended his hand to her – palm up – and left it raised between them.

Castiel knew what he was saying. She knew everyone in this room knew she was psychic. He was asking her what her choice was. They were going to kill her, or they were going to change her. She was being given an option besides death because of the gift that made here feel so isolated her entire life.

Her feelings were so conflicted that it took her a moment to register his hand in front of her.

"I don't understand," she said with a confused look at his open palm.

Aro laughed suddenly, an unsettling, deranged kind of laugh that caused her to jump back in shock.

If it wouldn't have drawn attention to herself, Sulpicia would have groaned. He did the creepy laugh. Of course, he did the creepy laugh. Dear god why did he have to do the creepy laugh?

One look back at the poor girl showed Sulpicia she was completely alarmed, but yet her husband continued as if he didn't notice the expression on her face.

"I am sorry my dear! I haven't properly explained this to you, have I?" He raised the hand he had extended slightly in example as he thought of the best way to phrase his ability. "You are gifted child… many of us in this coven are as well. My gift is best referred to as tactile telepathy. I can see every thought and every memory you have ever had since the day you were born."

Castiel flinched.

She wasn't sure of this. Didn't he realize how very personal it was to be asking to look into someone's head like that? To see their entire life? Everything they were proud of and everything they had ever felt ashamed of just laid out for someone to see…

Castiel and Aro were in their own private little world, neither of them had noticed Caius snap at the guards to be quiet when they began whispering to each other about "the human". They acted like she had committed a social faux pas because she was iffy about having her thoughts read for the first time. This irritated Caius greatly since the guards were too high and mighty to remember that each and every one of them had the same reaction when confronted with Aro's gift for the first time.

Aro waited patiently, knowing that he would see her thoughts momentarily and it would be unnecessary to pressure her.

She could feel eyes on her, she felt everyone watching and knew she didn't really have a choice. She would have to answer Aro's question mentally and lay her entire life out for him to see. It was his way of seeing the certainty of her choice and the intricacies of her gift.

So she held her hand out next to his, palm up.

Aro lowered his right arm in favor of his left to take her trembling hand, only slightly interested in the fact that she must be left-handed since most people shook with their right.

He tried to have his expression look less frightening to her, like she was an animal that he had startled and might bolt at any moment. Covering her palm with his own he was greeted by the rush of her memories and Castiel couldn't help but let out a frightened gasp as he pulled her closer and clasped her hand in both of his own.

Back on his throne Marcus couldn't ignore the whimper of fear that came from the bell like voice of the girl speaking to Aro, and he certainly couldn't ignore the sudden stabbing pain right over his heart. It felt as though someone had hooked him and was yanking him sharply from his seat. Opening his eyes and switching to his bond sight as he stood, he finally saw where the abnormal bond he acquired decades ago was leading.

He was tied to the small human whom Aro was reading, her eyes were screwed shut and her breathing was shaky as Aro went through the years of her life, as if she was bracing for pain.

Marcus hadn't even noticed he was walking down the dais toward them, the bond to the girl giving him another sharp tug to drag him forward.

Then she opened her eyes. And the moment her powder blue eyes locked with his over Aro shoulder everything made sense.

A wave of gold tore from his chest, rushing forward to encircle the pretty redhead. The previously white bond flashed and became a brilliant bright gold that nearly hurt him to look directly at. Hundreds of little gold strands began to connect them together as he felt the weight of every singly bond, he had made in his thousands of years alive lighten considerably in comparison as the one to her.

Nothing mattered anymore, not air, not the sun, not even gravity. The only thing that mattered was the little human not even twenty feet from him.

Castiel.

He fell to his knees just after descending the dais, unable to take his eyes from her. Aro released Castiel and turned immediately at Sulpicia's cry of worry, and he held his hand up to stop anyone from moving as he went to his brother's side. He didn't ask before leaning down and taking his hand and couldn't quite find the ability to close his jaw after her saw the life changing situation that just happened with Marcus upon meeting Castiel's eyes.

And so Aro said lowly, so lowly that only the vampires in the room would be able to hear it and Castiel wouldn't even know he had made a sound, the two little words that would change the life of their coven as they knew it.

"Marcus imprinted."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Just another thing I wanted to add: Imprinting in this story can NOT happen on children because that shit is not right. Thank you! :)
> 
> Revised January 18th, 2021
> 
> (17 Pages, 7,668 Words)


	4. Unexpected

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Authors Note: Alright I'm gonna answer some questions before we delve into this story any further.
> 
> What is vampire imprinting?  
> It's the same thing most fanfictions head canon a vampire finding their mate to be like. It's an instant love-at-first-sight kind of connection.
> 
> Can imprinting happen on children?  
> GROSS. No. In this ff it's not possible for a vampire or shifter to imprint on a kid.
> 
> What would have happened if Marcus saw Castiel as a child?  
> The bond wouldn't have properly formed. He would have seen that he was connected to her, but he would have remain completely unchanged and unfazed by it. He literally could have watched her get gobbled up by a lion and he wouldn't have been fazed.
> 
> That is all. Happy reading!

The tension in the room was so thick it could have been cute with a knife. The nearly suffocating silence was only broken by a deep voice muttering a disbelieving, "Holy Shit."

And that ever so eloquent remark came from Caius, who received a slight glare from Aro in response.

Glancing at Caius in confusion due to his comment, Castiel turned back to the situation at hand, her expression displaying her shock and worry. The man who had grabbed her attention when descending the dais was beautiful, probably one of the most – if not the most – handsome men she had ever seen. He had a straight nose and a strong angular jaw, with chocolate colored hair that fell to his shoulders and a height that indicated he was a good few inches taller than Aro (and Aro was already a head taller than her). He also looked… built for lack of a better term. She was sure his strength would rival Felix's, though he was just slightly leaner and less muscly looking than Felix.

She was not sure what she had done to him, but she was sure she had done something by the way he fell to his knees after looking at her. Castiel took a step forward, lifting her hand from her side slightly as if to offer her help even though she wasn't sure what she could do.

Aro held up a hand to her to stop her movement, but at her step forward the man who had fallen to his knees stood so fast she couldn't see the movement. The way he looked at her troubled her too. He looked at her as though she was something he had never seen before, something beautiful and mysterious.

Like… like someone who had been trapped underground their whole life had finally come out to see the sun.

Aro placed his hand on Marcus' chest, feeling the slight pressure on his arm as his brother made to move toward Castiel. Aro was thinking quickly; hat had just happened was very serious and had to be addressed carefully. Castiel was only human and therefor could not feel what Marcus had just felt, and him coming at her with centuries upon centuries worth of caged emotion would only end in disaster and undoubtedly frighten her off.

Though they did have a good sign, Castiel moving forward to try and offer help to Marcus could have been her acting on a mating bond. Worrying for the wellbeing and comfort of your mate came as naturally as breathing, and though they had never heard of a human displaying these signs Castiel could be an exception because she was now the first human imprint to a vampire in existence.

"Demetri, Felix," Aro called to both of them at a normal volume, speaking in English as to not make Castiel feel as though they were simply acting as if she wasn't here or purposefully trying to exclude her from the conversation, "Please take Castiel to be checked by Arkos and show her to her quarters in the East wing."

Felix opened his mouth to ask where exactly in the East wing they were to be taking her, the East wing being the private wing of the masters and their wives, before being elbowed by Demetri.

Sending his friend an expression that just kind of said "really?" Demetri rolled his eyes. They were obviously to take her to one of the free rooms in Marcus' halls. Each of their masters had their own section in the East wing and their own kind of suites and each section always had an area for guests of the brothers.

Felix caught onto this, making a mental note that while Castiel and Demetri were with Arkos he should make sure one of the human servants were sent to clean one of the guest quarters in Marcus' halls. Though all the quarters in the East wing were modernized and renovated just a few years beforehand Marcus never had any guests that were close enough to him to stay within his personal housing. The guest rooms were probably all very dusty and this point and any linen would need a good washing.

Demetri came forward, trying to look as un-threatening as he possibly could. He was sure that Master Marcus had been completely turned on his head and any wrong move toward Castiel would end with his head being torn from his shoulders by the reawakened god of war.

Yes Marcus was one of the greatest warriors their coven had ever seen, the best fighters on Earth paling in comparison to what Marcus was capable of when he got going. Many of the young and lower guards believed that Marcus had lost his nerve after the death of his wife, but they were never present during the few battles afterward that threatened their coven. Marcus would become the same fighter he was many years ago when it was called for and retreat back into his shell when the threat was defeated. But now that he had an imprint – a fragile human imprint whose life could be ended so quickly if one of the Volturi's enemies got a hold of her – the fighter in Marcus would not disappear any time soon.

Castiel turned to Demetri sensing his approach, and they both jumped when Marcus let out a very deep, very loud, growl.

"Peace brother," Sulpicia said gently, approaching Marcus to put a comforting hand on his back. "He means her no harm, he's only following orders and taking her to Arkos so he can make sure she is okay. Surely you can smell the sickness in the air."

Felix opened the doors to the room while Demetri steered Castiel from it with a very gentle hand on her shoulder. Before the doors closed Castiel looked back to the vampire she seemed to have greatly affected in some unknown way and watched as his rather deadly glare at Demetri's back changed into something softer as his eyes met hers again.

But she couldn't study the look further before she was ushered out of the room completely and Felix closed the doors behind them.

Before she could even open her moth to interrogate Demetri as to what in gods name happened in there, he just turned and gave her a pointed look while shaking his head.

Of course. She wasn't allowed to ask.

She wasn't even sure if she had really answered Aro's whole "join or die" question, she had been so frightened she didn't know what answer he had gleaned from her mind.

And as they walked down more cold halls, making confusing turns and traveling up and down different sets of stairs she thought hard. What did she want? Did she want to join this coven of gifted vampires to help protect some great supernatural secret? Or did she just want to end it now? This was a seriously life changing decision to make, living forever as a kind of police officer for the vampire race, or dying at 21 years old.

Castiel really didn't want to die, she had a purpose in life! Everyone did. And maybe, just maybe she got sick a few weeks ago so fate could be sure she would get here. She wasn't a big believer in fate but she also wasn't a big believer of coincidences either, and it just worked out too perfectly that she would get ill and not be able to have any of the visions she depended on so much in her life be able to warn her that she was being hunted.

It was all so confusing, and her heart hurt when she imagined if she told Aro she didn't want to join, not because she was afraid to die necessarily… but because of what it would do to her dad.

Her dad.

The Marine Core Gunnery Sargent who raised her alone since she was only two. Her father, who had divorced her mother who didn't want her anymore, who didn't want the strange child who could see the future and was an abomination against god. Her father who loved his country so much it hurt but still loved her more than that, more than anything else in the entire world.

She couldn't imagine what would occur after she was killed, she had no doubt the Volturi would dump her body somewhere closer to home to be found to end the search she knew was inevitably going to happen if not already happening. Castiel knew she would never see her father again, but at least if she chose to join the guard her father would never lose hope that she was alive.

And hope was all she could give him now.

Demetri heard Castiel sniff behind him, and he and Felix both turned to see that her eyes were brimming with tears and she was watching her feet as she walked. The two guards looked uncomfortably at each other, unsure of what to do if she started crying. Castiel crying was bound to happen eventually, but neither of them really had words of comfort for her and neither of them could exactly offer her a hug and sympathy. They both knew they weren't allowed to lay a hand on her for any reason at this point without her explicit consent. Marcus would have their balls for it.

They also knew their master really wouldn't appreciate seeing his mate – no, his imprint – wrapped in the arms of another man for any reason. She was so much more than a mate to him and the fact that he still had yet to court her would only make him that much more hostile toward anyone he viewed to be competition.

She was his, and he was hers. It was destined to be that way.

Castiel just didn't know it yet. She couldn't feel what Marcus felt. She wasn't a vampire and therefore had no idea what mating, let alone imprinting, felt like.

But would she be changed into a vampire? Demetri thought the question to himself as they arrived at the metal door to the hospital wing. She would be uncontrollable her first year as a newborn, and master Marcus surely couldn't plan to try courting her during that?

He was sure Master Marcus wouldn't want to wait a few years before getting to know her because he was eager to change her. Master Marcus was fine with humans and Demetri was interested to see how everything was going to play out over the next few days. He was head of the guard after all and would be updated on this… situation as it progressed.

Entering the hospital wing Castiel felt like she had walked directly into a hospital from the 16th century, though with more modern accommodations of course. The room was long and bright with many windows and white marble floors. There were dozens of beds lining either side of the room and on the far wall there were folded sets of privacy curtains. Three beds at the far-left end frightened her though. They were all metal with pure white shackles mounted at each corner to hold the occupant down. They had no mattresses and unlike most of the beds which looked like standard hospital beds on wheels, these were bolted to the floor.

Felix saw Castiel's apprehensive expression and spoke, "Those beds are only used for newborns, or humans undergoing the changing process. We only tie people to them if they are violent."

"But won't they be able to break through them?" Her voice was small. She knew vampires could break down walls, run hundreds of miles in minutes, and stop a moving train, so shackles must be like ripping through tissue paper to them.

Felix smirked wickedly "Not these. They aren't made of conventional metal… or anything of the sort really."

But before she could ask what they were made of if not metal, Demetri put and end to the conversation with a stern "Enough Felix!" and stopped them in front of a plain wooden door at the end of the massive room.

Taking a key from his pocket Demetri unlocked the door and led her into what was a very standard doctor's office/examination room. It was small and sterile, with a counter that had various jars of cotton swabs, tongue depressors, and alcohol wipes along with everything else she'd expect to see if she were going for a checkup. A weighing scale, a sink, a blood pressure meter… she was sure if she opened the drawers and cabinets it would just be more of the standard stuff.

Demetri indicated that she sit up on the padded table covered with crinkly tissue paper as he took a seat in one of the folding chairs next to the sink near the door.

Castiel hopped up onto the table, glaring at Demetri when he looked like he would laugh at her. The table was high, so she had to lift herself up by her arms and almost ripped the crinkling paper off when she sat.

She was expecting to hear booming laughter from Felix, she could only imagine he was the sort of vampire who would have a good laugh at her human struggles, but was surprised to notice he wasn't in the room… not that there was exactly a lot of spare room for him to take up. There wasn't any time to ask where he went however, for the door opened again to admit another unfamiliar vampire.

He was tall, around Demetri's height and stature, with messy jet-black hair and a kind smile on his face. He seemed to be in his late thirties' or early forties, and Castiel thought that if she gave him a pair of glasses, he would look like the vampire replica of James Potter. He wore a long white lab coat that was buttoned and fell to his knees, along with dark blue scrubs and shiny black shoes.

He had a patch on his coat with the name "Arkos" sewn into it.

So Arkos was a doctor? This surprised Castiel since she had never met a vampire doctor before and found it to be a strange choice of profession. Weren't vampires only really interested in humans for dietary purposes? And if Castiel was apprehensive of all of this before she was truly nervous now. She had heard Arkos' name multiple times, and the very first time she heard it was when Demetri was informing Felix that Arkos had given him something to knock her out so they could bring her here.

Demetri shot up from his chair to stop Arkos from speaking, and as quickly as he could he relayed the nights events in the doctor's ear.

Arkos could only raise his eyebrows in surprise at the news that the human Aro had been searching for was Marcus' imprint, and quietly thanked Demetri for the warning, sure that everyone was walking on eggshells at the moment around Master Marcus' new and fragile mate.

"Totally couldn't tell you were just whispering about me there; you were super subtle." Castiel snapped sarcastically from her seat. And Demetri couldn't reprimand her this time either. She could literally tell them all to fuck off and she wouldn't get into any trouble at this point.

"I am truly sorry dear," Arkos' voice was much deeper than she expected it to be, "That was very rude of us and I'm sorry to give you such a bad first impression. My name is Arkos. I am the Volturi's personal doctor for the vampires, future vampires, and humans of this coven."

Castiel found it very hard to hate him at the kind smile he had and comforting aura that just seemed to flow around him him, but her voice didn't lack hostility as she said, "Yeah, I've heard of you already."

This caused the doctor's friendly smile to falter as he shot a questioning look at Demetri. He was very popular with most of the coven and didn't understand what he could have possibly done wrong by her already.

Without trying to keep his voice low Demetri told him that Castiel knew he had supplied the medicine that would help her sleep on the plane.

Arkos looked to Castiel to inquire what he had done to offend her, still not comprehending how giving Demetri the medicine was bad, before Demetri continued.

"I gave her the needle when we took her from her father's home, she was putting up a fight with Felix and a witness was going to arrive any moment."

There was a pause long enough for Castiel's heart to beat three times before the doctor stiffened and turned on his heel to round on Demetri, and his expression was furious.

"How dare you," The doctor snarled, his teeth bearing at the guard, unaware of Castiel's shocked expression behind his back, "How dare you use something I supply to kidnap a girl. I was under the impression that she was coming here willingly, not by force!"

Demetri's expression mirrored Castiel's. He had never heard the gentle doctor snarl at anyone before and being on the receiving end of this new anger was unexpected.

No one knew what to say, and after taking a deep breath Arkos waved his hand toward the door behind Demetri, glaring at the senior guard all the while. "Leave. I want to complete my examination and you are not needed in here."

Demetri knew he was being rather angrily dismissed, and though he was head of the guard Arkos was on very good terms with the masters and therefor he was the superior in this situation.

Resolving to stand outside the door, Demetri exit the room.

The silence when he left was awkward, and Arkos took a moment to rub his face in frustration before moving over to one of the drawers and withdrawing a clipboard with some blank forms attached to it.

"This is just a routine physical Castiel, it is mandatory that whenever a new person joins this coven, we check physical health. With human members we also go over pervious vaccinations, medical history, and daily activity. Is this alright with you?"

Castiel wanted to say something to Arkos, to tell him that she could see that he wasn't responsible for the wrong that had been done to her thus far, but she couldn't find the words. Whenever someone was upset Castiel always had the desire to make him or her feel better, no matter if what they were feeling was anger or sadness. It was just the kind of person she was. She didn't like seeing people in pain.

"That's fine." She whispered this as she found her voice again, and Arkos took this as a good sign. Demetri had said he wasn't sure how long Castiel would remain human, so Arkos needed her to trust him if he were to be caring for her as a human for the foreseeable future.

"Alright. Full name?"

Arkos withdrew a pen from his coat and positioned it above the form and Castiel answered automatically.

"Castiel Jane Rodgers"

"Date of birth?"

"December twenty-fourth, nineteen ninety-five."

"Christmas Eve?" Arkos asked and couldn't help but smile when Castiel responded with a nod and smile of her own.

"Can you come stand against the wall over here so I can check your height?"

The examination went quickly from this point, as Castiel was very co-operative. After checking her heart rate and determining it was at normal levels and Castiel laughing uncontrollably when he went to feel the pulse in her neck because she was ticklish, he had her touch the floor to check her spine for scoliosis.

He was surprised when she was able to place her palms flat on the floor, most people he had do this test, vampires included, could barely touch their toes.

Castiel knew what he was going to ask and laughed, "I'm a gymnast, but I haven't competed in years. I just work… well I guess I used to work, Monday through Thursday from three to nine teaching other gymnasts' routines for competitions."

Arkos made a note on his clipboard of that. "Well I'm sure you'd be happy to know that we have a gymnasium here. Many gymnastic routines are very good for agility and balance, so some of the guard like to practice the skill."

This did excite Castiel, but she tried to remain a bit reserved. Arkos was easy to get along with, and she was sure at this point he could tell she wasn't angry at him, but there was still so much of her situation she had yet to take in.

When Castiel got quiet Arkos indicated she hop back up on the table so he could check her eyes. Uttering a quiet "look here" he held a finger up and had her follow it, before hitting the lights and illuminating the screen on the opposite wall that had an assortment of letters with a large font on the top of the screen and a small font at the bottom.

"Cover your left eye and read the bottom line for me please,"

Castiel laughed at his request, "Not gonna happen. I have slight astigmatism and can't read fine print at a distance."

"And you usually wear glasses?" Arkos needed to make a note of this because it wouldn't be fair to her if they denied her such a basic necessity.

"Not really, I do have a pair that I only wear when I drive since the real issue I have is when road signs are out of focus, but they are probably sitting in my helmet."

Not being able to help himself he laughed, "You wear a helmet when you drive?"

Imagining her sitting in the driver's seat of a car wearing a bright red bicycle helmet was hilarious. Could she really be so accident-prone? Or was she one of those people with high anxiety when they drove? She seemed very agile to him and gymnastics was not exactly the easiest thing for a clumsy person. She also wasn't showing any signs of an anxiety issue – which she certainly would have been showing by now given what she had been through in the last day or so.

She was confused at his amusement, "Yeah? What's so weird about-," but she broke off mid sentence and smacked her forehead with the heel of her hand before laughing at herself. "Well I probably should have said ride. I have a motorcycle."

This made a lot more sense, and Arkos took note of that as well. She would need a pair of glasses if she were permitted to drive. Aro probably knew her prescription from one of her memories so he would have to ask, though… Arkos really wasn't convinced that she would be allowed to have a motorcycle. The Volturi did have an extensive car collection and among them there were only a few motorcycles… he believed it was Caius who scoffed at the idea of the motorcycle saying "Of course human's would find a way to be more exposed and more likely to die in a road accident than the vehicles they have already come up with."

Yeah, the doctor was sure Marcus would not be on board with her driving a motorcycle… at least not while she was human.

"And while we are on the topic of my vision, I suppose I should mention that I'm colorblind."

This fascinated Arkos, he loved medical mysteries and women were not usually colorblind. Statistically only 1 in 200 women had the condition. "Really? Does this run in your family? Do you know what the defi-,"

"Deficiency is?" Castiel finished for him, she usually avoided finishing people's questions for them as it was rude, but she couldn't help herself when she was going through a line of questioning like this. "No. My mother was colorblind as well as her twin brother, at least that's what my dad told me, all I know is that my range of color is smaller than most peoples... I think."

Before he could ask any more questions, Demetri knocking and speaking through the closed-door interrupted him. It was time for Castiel to be taken to her room.

They had spent rather a lot of time together, Arkos had even gone through the line of questioning about her sexual preference and history much to her embarrassment. Now he was interested in getting his hand on some color swatches and tests to see how she fared.

Castiel didn't want to admit she was disappointed that she couldn't speak with Arkos longer, she had so many questions for him and he seemed willing to answer any inquires she had between questions of his own.

With a small smile at the good doctor and a sigh of disappointment Castiel left with Demetri – Felix was back and already leading the way out of the hospital area – bidding Arkos goodnight and hoping she could finally have some privacy and rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revised January 18th, 2021
> 
> (10 Pages, 4,184 Words)


	5. Plans

After Castiel was taken to see Arkos, the ancients dismissed the guard, but only after Caius took the time to threaten everyone who had attended the trial with their tongue being removed for the next month if any of them dared to speak a word. And, as curious as those who attended were, they were not going to invoke the Masters' wrath. Castiel, the human Master Marcus had all but laid an unspoken claim to, was to remain a secret until they were told otherwise.

Aro and Caius all but dragged Marcus from the room, and Sulpicia seemed to know that Marcus was about to throw a fit, because she suggested they head to one of the training rooms so he could blow off steam.

That's where the ancients were now, but Marcus was not with them. He had instead taken to destroying a room a few doors down the hall. Most of the rooms this way were filled with items for storage while a few rooms in the castle underwent renovations – after all it was important to make sure the castle was structurally sound, and in the last decade Aro had made the decision that the castle underwent massive renovations. All these renovations were done by vampires of course.

While the wives exchanged worried looks, and Caius sighed in frustration because he was impatient to get to the matter at hand, Aro couldn't have been in a better mood. After all there was nothing in any of the rooms that wasn't replaceable, and he viewed that Marcus was reacting much better than expected.

He had seen the inner turmoil in his brother's head, and Marcus knew he needed to blow off steam before he could see Castiel. This was hard, so very hard, for Marcus to grasp. Marcus had though he was mated before and was mourning the loss of Didyme for centuries only to realize that he was destined for an imprint. It pained him to question his old relationship and to have an imprint who simply could not feel what he so intensely felt for her, who was probably hurt both physically and psychologically when she was forced here by their guard.

Marcus worried for their bond, worried how much damage they had already caused without meaning to, and how it would affect Castiel's feelings toward him. Aro wasn't even slightly concerned though. He had seen the bond and noticed there was no negativity or hesitance coming from Castiel's end. Marcus just needed to calm down so he could think rationally enough to see it for himself.

Suddenly it went quiet, the sounds of Marcus' rampage ceasing. This drew the family from the room where they encountered Marcus entering the hall himself. He was covered from head to toe in thick white dust and his suit was thoroughly ruined. It was torn in multiple places and missing a sleeve while his tie seemed to have disappeared somewhere.

"Now that that's settled!" Aro said in his usual cheery voice, clapping his hands together – the sound echoing through the hallway, "Why don't we go take a seat in my office and figure out what to do?"

So together they ran, Aro leading the way and being sure to take a path that wouldn't lead them through the hall where Castiel's room was. Marcus simply didn't need the distraction.

And once they were in his study, Aro and Caius took their previous seats on the loungers while their wives head over to Aro's desk. Sulpicia reached into one of the drawers to draw out a silver laptop which the two women opened and began speaking quietly over.

The brothers didn't ask what their wives were up to, sure they would be told once they finished whatever they had set themselves to do.

Marcus sat heavily on the couch, dispersing dust across the fine leather.

"Perhaps we should give you a moment to tidy yourself up brother," Aro suggested as his brother dirtied his couch, only too have the suggestion shut down by Caius.

"No! For once we need to get straight to the matter at hand. Shit. Hit. The. Fucking. Fan. In there Aro!"

"Why is it such an issue that I imprinted?" Marcus snapped from his seat, his glare at his blonde brother truly dangerous, "I don't see what the problem is here so if you could explain it to me, I'd really appreciate it."

"He wasn't saying that brother," Aro hurried out in a soothing tone, sensing how dangerous Marcus' hostility was toward Caius really was, "Castiel is the furthest thing from and issue, and I can say that confidently for I've seen her entire life. It was truly very… peaceful inside her head. She's very kind and her true innocence is shocking to say the least. It's been a long time since I've seen someone with such a clean and straight-thinking mind."

"Right," Caius confirmed, mindlessly agreeing with Aro because it seemed to calm Marcus down somewhat, and he leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "My concern is only for her safety brother. We don't need word getting out to enemies about her just yet, not in the state she's in-,"

"Her human state you mean?" Marcus stood impatiently, his sharp eyes narrowing at Caius, "I have no problem with her humanity, so please refrain from talking about her as if she has some condition waiting to be treated."

It was quiet for a second and Caius knew he would have to reel-in the human comments for the time being. He didn't care she was human, she was to be his sister so of course he wouldn't view or treat her badly, but Marcus was going to defend his mate at every turn for now and he wouldn't take to kindly to what could be considered rude comments if viewed the wrong way.

"Marcus please relax," Athenadora's soft voice came from over by the computer, the tapping of the keys on the keyboard pausing, "Everything will be alright, we'll figure this out together. I'm sure I speak for everyone when I say we will secure you your mate."

Glancing around the room and seeing the expressions of agreement on each member of his family's face caused Marcus to take a deep breath and run his fingers through his hair, suddenly ashamed at the way he was acting.

"I know. I'm sorry."

It was times like these that the brothers were truly grateful for their wives. They were always the voice of reason in tense situations, and their calm demeanor always soothed the beasts within them. That was what a mate did for the more aggressive partner, they calmed centuries of pain and bouts of bloodlust and rage without effort.

"Our only concern for our youngest is her safety right now," Aro's tone was placating as he rose from his chair to stand with Marcus. "We will gather the guard and privately inform them of Castiel soon, and those who know already will remain silent for now. For the time being we just have to make sure we issue your guards to-,"

"Afton and Chelsea are already guarding Castiel." Marcus interrupted, knowing what Aro was going to suggest.

Afton and his mate Chelsea had been Marcus' personal guards for centuries now. Afton had been eager to step down as head of the guard for the honor of protecting a Master when the position was offered to him. The two were quite a pair, Chelsea's gift of bond tying meshing well with Marcus' gift of bond sight. Though Chelsea's gift was much simpler since she was only able to really strengthen or loosen a bond as a whole. Her gift did not show her a bonds true complexity or form. Her ability also didn't usually work if a bond was strong; she could not affect mating or family bonds.

But Chelsea was viewed in a very bad light by many of the Volturi's enemies. They acted as though she could take away free will and used her powers willy-nilly. Chelsea could not take away free will, and contrary to popular belief she never used her gift to make people join the guard. She only ever used her gift during trials to make accused vampires more trusting of the masters and therefor more willing to give up information.

His guards had seen his distress when Castiel was being removed from the room earlier, both of them were of course in attendance since they always followed Master Marcus, and Afton gave him a silent nod as an unspoken agreement that they would leave to watch his mate.

Before Aro could respond Sulpicia called him over to the computer. Caius and Marcus were a bit frustrated as the two began talking lowly to each other, their eyes fixed on the machine as Athenadora scrolled and typed.

Caius let out a low, irritated growl causing his wife to look up and roll her eyes at him. "Oh relax Caius, we are just looking at something for Castiel."

"What's for Castiel?" This caught Marcus' interest, he really wished they would keep him more in the loop with things that concerned his little mate.

Athenadora turned the screen around, Aro leaving the desk to go take a seat on the dust-covered couch so Marcus would have room to see what the wives were doing.

On the screen was the online shopping cart of a well-known clothing brand, other tabs on the web browser indicated that she had more designer clothing sites opened as well. In the cart were dozens of different things ranging from sweaters to skirts, to socks and makeup.

"We were only having Aro confirm if these things were in her size and if she wore heels at all." Sulpicia turned the computer back around to face her and began typing away. "She isn't very into makeup but Aro said she is fond of liquid lipsticks so I have to find some brands she may like."

Marcus was both speechless and touched to see his sisters already going out of their way for the comfort of his mate, the two of them going on to discuss bath products while Athenadora thought aloud of lending Castiel some clothes to wear for the next day, since it would take a day or two even with express shipping for most of the clothes to arrive and she was physically the closest to Castiel's size.

"For now, Marcus, what we have to focus on is how you can acquaint yourself with Castiel." Aro said reasonably, "She doesn't know who you are, only that you are one of the three leaders." He made air quotations with his hands at the words, "She doesn't even know your name, so you have a clean slate."

"And she has a personality very similar to yours. She's quiet, loyal, and doesn't seem to like the spotlight being trained on her. If I didn't see it for myself, I wouldn't believe she could be so perfect for you."

Before Marcus could respond, wanting to ask more about what he saw in Castiel's mind, Aro smiled knowingly while shaking his head.

"I know how much she means to you brother, and I know you wish to know everything about her but the questions you have are best left for her."

Of course, Marcus thought before sighing. Aro having unlimited access to everyone's mind was something he knew was invasive and his brother usually did his best to respect people's privacy. So, out of respect for her, Aro wouldn't divulge much about Castiel to Marcus regardless of his imprinting on her.

At that moment a knock sounded on the door, and upon Caius' approval Arkos entered. The doctor had changed from his white lab coat and scrubs into a pair of dark blue jeans and a black button up, and he nodded to his Masters before bending into a polite bow to their wives. In his hand was a clipboard, which he didn't hesitate to hold out to Aro.

"Castiel is in overall good health." He informed them as Aro's eyes scrolled quickly down the page. "The only real concern I had was when I had her breathe deeply for me and she had a small coughing fit – as well as the scent of the sickness in her blood. But she assures me she was sick these last couple of weeks and is on the tail end of it."

"Yes, that is true," Aro nodded quickly as he finished reading over the forms before passing them to Marcus.

Patient Name: Castiel Jane Rodgers

Gender: Female

D.O.B: 24/12/1995

Height: 5 feet 0 inches

Weight: 103 lbs.

Eye Color: Blue

Hair Color: Red

Ethnicity: White/Caucasian

Blood Type: O-

Organ Donor: Yes

Blood Donor: No, due to not meeting American weight requirements for blood donation

Vision: 20/25 or 20/30 range.

*Suffers from nearsightedness and astigmatism

*Needs a pair of glasses made to legally be allowed to operate a vehicle – She is issued a class M license in the United States

*Colorblind with unknown deficiency

Sexual Orientation: Straight

Sexual History: None

*Patent relays no history of physical relationships

Head Injuries: One record of a minor concussion from grade school, no lasting effects.

Surgeries: Wisdom teeth – removed at age 19.

*All vaccinations are up to date, negative for scoliosis, no family history of heart disease, cancer, or other serious medical conditions

*Patient is left-handed

No history of physical relationships? This line stood out to Marcus, as it surely couldn't have been correct. Castiel was beautiful, there was no way anyone could deny that she was stunning even by vampire standards. Marcus knew that this was another subject of Castiel's privacy, but he couldn't stop himself from repeating the line as a question to Aro.

"Yes, you read that right," Aro knew this was a piece of information Marcus would need to know, "Castiel's father has been a very good role model… she knows how men should treat her. Of course, she has had suitors, but she never wasted her time with them. Her ability usually warned her that their intentions with her were mostly… physical."

"It's kind of unfortunate really, always knowing when the boys in her year wanted her attentions and realizing it was only because she was attractive and that they didn't care as much for her mind as her body. Quite an impression that can leave on a young girl… but she has always been very sensible and tried not to let it get to her." Aro shrugged.

Marcus nodded, trying to wrap his mind around just how innocent his mate really was. Not that she couldn't have been physical with others; answering no to physical relationships didn't mean she hadn't had one-night stands or things of the sort.

Marcus realized very quickly he needed to stay off that train of thought. Imagining his mate under someone else made him see red.

As a distraction he pointed out another line that had interested him while passing the clipboard to Caius.

"A class M license?" He said the words with an air of nonchalance, but he had a sinking feeling he knew what it meant.

"It's a motorcycle license." Aro confirmed, not blind to his brothers feigned disinterest.

"No." Marcus' voice was stern now, and he shook in denial as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Absolutely not."

Arkos couldn't help but shake his head with a small smile, he had been right to assume Marcus would hold the same viewpoint as Caius on motorcycles when it came to the safety of his mate.

"Even if she doesn't drive," Arkos spoke reasonably, "She should have an eye exam completed so she can get a pair of glasses. Castiel said she doesn't usually wear them but it's best she has them anyway."

This earned a nod of approval from everyone in the room and Aro stood to fetch a piece of paper from his desk to write down the specifications from her last eyeglass prescription for the doctor.

"Arkos this says Castiel is a gymnast?" Athenadora asked from the desk as she read over the second sheet of information that Arkos had listed Castiel's levels of physical activity on.

Am affirmative nod from the doctor caused Sulpicia to pull the laptop toward her and begin typing away. "Okay so if Castiel is a gymnast she'll need clothing for that; leotards, leggings, tank tops, sports bras… what else?"

"Maybe you shouldn't speak out loud darling," Caius piped up from his chair, a teasing smirk directed at Marcus, "It's not nice to tease Marcus that way."

And indeed, Marcus was having a hard time keeping away the mental image of his little mate in tight fitting clothes.

Since he was too busy smirking at Marcus, Caius missed the warning look his wife shot him and felt a jolt as his smart-ass response earned him a pen being thrown so graciously at the side of his head by Sulpicia.

Laughter sounded around the room at his shocked expression, and the night progressed with much less tension than before. Marcus couldn't help how grateful he felt for his brothers as they helped him plan what he could say when he spoke with Castiel, and Athenadora and Sulpicia were very helpful giving him insights to how women and relationships have changed over the years.

Aro had relayed that due to stress and overcoming her illness, Castiel was not as on top of her visions as she usually was, and this would be a good thing. This meant Marcus could start off this relationship as naturally as possible.

Caius advised that Marcus show some affection to her right off the bat, and that hearing words of praise and endearment would probably mean a lot to her. He felt that from the information Aro was willing to share about her that she wouldn't jump to assumptions about Marcus' intentions, not after having sabotaged so many potential relationships in the past by worrying too much right away about if they only wanted her physically. And according to Aro she could be pretty naïve when it came to men being affectionate with her and she didn't usually notice flirting for what it was.

She seemed such a constant little thing that being forward with her from the start would probably be the best course of action.

Aro was surprised Caius had picked up on this part of Castiel's personality. Yes, she was a very confident person… but she still had some insecurities. She would need someone to lean on in the coming weeks as she adjusted to life here.

As morning neared the brothers had agreed on a few things. Marcus would have to be careful with his intensity toward Castiel, rather than letting his affection for her come off too strong, he would have to focus and like a steadily dripping pipe he had to let his feelings come alight slowly. Castiel was also to remain human until the day she asked Marcus to change her, within reason of course, so she would not be pushed into immortality and the change would not be forced upon her unless it was a situation of dire consequence. And finally, as long as Castiel was with either Afton or Chelsea, she would be able to roam both the castle and the city as she pleased after she adjusted.

Overall a lot of progress was made this night. The gentle doctor was a comfort to Marcus as he assured him that Castiel hadn't been injured when she was taken to Volterra, only shaken a bit. Arkos also couldn't hide the fact that he had snapped at Demetri and upon Aro seeing what had occurred his Master nodded before speaking.

"Good." Aro shrugged, "At least now I don't have to tell him off myself."

As the sun rose Athenadora and Caius retired to their chambers, and moments after they left Marcus stood to go as well, he was planning to speak with Afton about how Castiel had handled her first night in the castle.

Before he exited, Sulpicia assured him that everything Castiel would need would be arriving within a few short days, her cloaks being the only exception since they would have to be specially made and would likely take a week.

Marcus could only give her a small smile of gratitude and tried not to laugh as Aro swept her off her feet, startling her as he made to carry her to their private rooms.

"Please shut the door behind you brother." Aro said wickedly, winking at Marcus.

And Marcus couldn't help but smile as he left to shower, change, and check on his imprint.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revised January 18th, 2021
> 
> (8 Pages, 3,461 Words)


	6. Guards

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry for not updating last Sunday, I was out house hunting. So this week you get two chapters! :) Enjoy!

After Marcus had showered and changed his clothes – he was now in pristine black dress pants, polished black shoes with a matching leather belt, and a black button up with the sleeves pushed to his elbows – he found himself in front of Afton, who was dutifully standing guard outside his mates door.

Afton was not surprised to see Marcus in this more casual state of dress. The full suit he and the other ancients usually wore would have been a little too formal to wear around Castiel, and this slight change in attire was obviously made in an effort not to intimidate her.

Afton had learned much about Marcus over the centuries, and he would have been surprised if his master hadn't taken some steps to not seem so imposing in Castiel's presence.

"How is she Afton?" Marcus asked, even though he knew she was asleep, he could hear her even heartbeat and steady breathing through the door. Her scent did seem more potent though and he could smell salt in the air, which gave him an off feeling because he knew that this was most likely because she had been crying.

"She fell asleep only recently," the guard said honestly, only hesitating for a moment before continuing, "She's… well she's been crying for the last six hours. In the beginning she was crying for her dad, but toward the end she seemed to calm down some."

Marcus' heart lurched at these words, and the pain was reflected onto his face. Afton shot him a look of sympathy, he understood how much it hurt to see your mate in pain, and it was hard on Marcus' since Castiel did not know him well enough for him to be of any comfort.

Stepping to the side Afton allowed Marcus entrance to the room and Marcus tried to be as quiet as possible so he would not wake her as he slowly opened the door.

The guest quarters were large. The room they entered in was a living room of sorts; there were large windows that took up most of the far wall, the only part free of windows was the spot taken up by glass doors that lead out to the balcony. There was a large desk close to the windows so the inhabitant would be able to turn in their chair to gaze out at the city… the view of Volterra from this room was stunning.

A monstrous fireplace took up most of the right wall, Marcus could smell Afton's scent in the room and determined that he must be the reason for the fire currently crackling within it. There were plush armchairs around the fireplace, and above the mantle was a large flat screen television. On the wall where the door was shelves and shelves of books covered most of the free space. These books were some of Marcus' that he had run out of room for in his own quarters.

He would have to find out what kind of books Castiel liked, Aro had said she was very similar to him so surely she liked to read? Most of the books here were old and written in languages that were either long dead or just uncommon.

The left wall held paintings and three doors; one that led to a master bathroom that Marcus remembered to be roughly half the size of this room, another to a spacious walk in closet that was thus far empty, and the last door of course led to the bedroom.

Quietly, Marcus crossed the room to open the door leading into the bedroom. He was holding his breath, worried that making the slightest sound would startle her awake.

The sunlight streaming through the windows illuminated the gold and crème colored room, and the rays of light hitting the grand mirror propped against the wall on the opposite side of the room were sending bands of rainbow light in all directions. However, nothing in the room caught his attention quite like the form of the sleeping human on the bed that seemed much too large for one person.

Castiel was curled in a ball on her left side, her back was pressed up against the headboard and her arms folded tightly across her chest with her hands curled into tight little fists. She was lying on top of the blankets, her sneakers were still on, and her head was resting on a pillow that Marcus could see was still wet and stained with her tears. Demetri's jacket had been discarded on the floor.

Marcus would never be able to describe how awful he felt when he saw the area around her eyes and on her nose was an angry red color and sore looking. His concern for her only heightened when she let out a shuddering breath and shivered, seeming to try and curl up even tighter on the bed. A small section of skin was visible on her upper arm through the tear in her sweater – and the goose bumps were obvious even from his position across the room.

Rather than moving toward her, he crossed the room to the fireplace in the wall while whispering Afton's name.

He was selecting some dry logs from the stand next to the hearth when the guard entered and, upon seeing what his master was trying to do, rummaged in his pockets for the matches he had used to light the fire in the living room. The fireplace in this bedroom was gorgeous. It was made of beautifully sculpted black marble that had taken over a year to complete and it was still less ostentatious than the fireplace in the main quarters.

They had the fire started rather quickly thanks to the small fire-starter block that had been sitting in a little plastic wrap on the mantle, and Afton gave Marcus a small smile when the latter thanked him, giving the logs a prod with the poker to help the fire catch better in some places.

The room would take a little while to rise from the freezing temperature it was currently at, and Marcus couldn't help his relief when another glance around the room showed that there was neatly folded piles of throw blankets sitting on the couch that was resting against the foot of the bed.

Though he was concerned that covering her would wake her up Marcus decided he really didn't have any other option as not doing so meant leaving her to sleep on top of the blankets freezing for another hour. So, as carefully as he could, Marcus pulled the two thickest throw blankets from their piles and moved to cover Castiel with them. He was grateful that even when he took the time to tuck the blankets around her she didn't startle, and as he moved away she actually seemed to nuzzle her way into the blankets, subconsciously pulling one higher so it covered her mouth and nose as well.

And as Castiel fell into a more peaceful sleep, her form relaxing and uncurling from the stiff little ball she had been in, Marcus couldn't help but watch her.

He was basking in the wholeness he felt around her, the warmth of their bond acting as a balm and soothing the centuries of pain he had felt while he was alone.

Marcus stood silently near the foot of the bed for a few minutes with his attention on their bond and the bright swirls of gold the strands emitted as they coiled around each other acceptingly. He could see some of the strands emitting from his end of the bond reaching out toward some of hers and watched as hers moved away as if apprehensive when his tried to link them completely together.

This did not worry him though. Their bond would not truly become one until they had partaken in the full aspects of vampire mating rituals together – some rituals he believed might be too intense for her as a human. He only hoped she would be as accepting of him as their bonds were of each other already. He longed to see her awake and as relaxed with him as she was in her sleep. He wanted to hear sounds of joy from her rather than sounds of fear, as these were the only real sounds he had heard from her thus far.

Castiel groaned suddenly, and the noise drew Marcus out of his bond sight instantaneously, only to see that a beam of light from one of the windows was across her face. He didn't hesitate in moving to each window and drawing the floor length curtains shut. All the curtains in the castle were made of thick materials meant to keep light completely out since such was a necessity in a castle where vampires threw off startling rainbows of color when in sunlight.

And once the room was shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from a digital clock giving the time on the nightstand and the crackling fire in the hearth, Marcus knew it was time to take his leave and let her rest. He had all the time in the world to speak with her and for now he had to be patient.

Once Marcus was out in the hall Afton closed the door to Castiel's room before moving to stand with his back to it as he faced the hallway, resuming his post.

Reaching into his breast pocket Marcus withdrew a handkerchief. He didn't miss Afton's inquisitive look as he unfolded the soft fabric, revealing that sitting inside it was a solid gold Volturi crest, one that's design was exclusive to only the three masters and their wives.

The crest was expertly crafted, showing more detail than any crest the guards owned, making it much more intricate and beautiful than the others aside from the fact that the crests of the guard were only ever made of silver or bronze.

The Masters' crests also had personal touches to them. Each had a precious stone that was set at the bottom point of the V. Aro and Sulpicia's crests both had an emerald at the point, Caius and Athenadora's crests each had a purple gem at the point called musgravite, and Marcus' gem was a red beryl – similar in look to a ruby but much more expensive.

Afton could recall the day, centuries ago, that Master Aro had these more extravagant crests designed for himself and his brothers. All the guard, even the younger or "less important" guards who rarely entered the castle since they had nomadic lifestyles, knew the significance of owning one of these extravagant crests. There were some guards who had never met Athenadora or Sulpicia because they didn't have much of a reason too but seeing the crests upon their necks when the time did come that they were confronted with the wives, there was no room for confusion about their positions in the coven. They were the queens and had to be treated with the utmost respect.

But what surprised Afton about seeing the necklace was the fact that he hadn't even know Master Marcus' crest was part of a set. Since the necklaces were created centuries after Didyme's death and no one believed it would be possible for Marcus to have another mate, it was completely unexpected that there was another created to match his own. Of courses imprinting was always a possible option but it was just so rare no one had ever considered it.

And Marcus seemed to know what he was thinking, because he answered Afton's look with a small smile.

"I was not aware that my crest was part of a set either. Aro pulled me aside and gave it to me last night. He admits he never thought it was possible but… he was always hopeful."

Afton knew how much of a sentiment this was between the brothers, and he felt touched as he thought about how much this small act probably meant to Marcus.

"Athenadora will be bringing a change of clothes for Castiel in a few hours," Marcus tone had gone businesslike once the moment had passed, "Be sure Castiel puts this crest on as well but please do not explain the significance to her just yet. I plan to tell her myself within the next few days."

Afton nodded as he took the crest from Marcus' outstretched hand and placed it safely within his own pocket. Of course he knew Marcus would want to tell his mate himself what was going on and even though it would be challenging he would face it head on and make sure Castiel wasn't blind to everything that was happening around her, or this very serious change that had a lot to do with her future.

Marcus left Afton to stand guard as he headed to the library. He would stay there for the remainder of the day as he waited to officially meet his little mate.

8 Hours Later, 4PM

Waking up with a groan, Castiel stretched letting out a tiny moan as she spread herself out on the bed. This mattress was one of the softest she had ever lain in, and it was difficult to open her eyes even though she knew she had slept plenty, and that it was time for her to face whatever unpleasantness was waiting for her on this new day.

She hadn't answered Aro's question from the previous night, at least not directly, but she knew that once she saw him again she would see in her head that she really didn't want to die even if that meant she had no other choice but to live the rest of her life as one of the protectors of vampire law.

After it was said and done, the idea of Aro reading her mind wasn't as abhorrent to her as before because she wasn't a very secretive person. Her largest secret was the fact that she was psychic, but everyone here already knew that, so she didn't really have anything to hide anymore. Aro had already seen the very worst of her along with the very best, so everything else was a moot point now.

And was that what her life was going to become here? Just one big grey area?

Her eyes were only half open when she stood from the bed, and she was stunned to feel blankets slipping off of her onto the floor. She knew she hadn't fallen asleep with any blankets covering her so the idea that someone had been in her room while she was asleep was frightening. Upon closer inspection though she realized she was still completely dressed, shoes and all, so she calmed slightly upon the realization that no one had physically messed with her.

After rubbing the sleep from her eyes with her knuckles, which kind of hurt because the skin near her eyes felt raw, Castiel observed the room. Her room.

There was a flame burning low in the fireplace. The room had been at what she assumed were below freezing temperatures before she fell asleep and was now a slightly stuffy, but still very comfortable temperature. Whoever had lit the fire must have closed the curtains to the windows as well, because when she went to look out over her view of the town her eyes were blinded by the glare of the afternoon sun.

She groaned aloud when she re-shut the curtains and turned to check the clock, only to see the bright red numbers reading 16:12.

Of course it was four in the afternoon, Castiel thought irritably as she made to rub her face in frustration at the horrible sleeping schedule she was going to have now, only to wince upon feeling how painfully sore her eyes were. She must have been crying longer than she thought for it felt like she had removed most of the layers of skin around her eyes from rubbing them so hard on her sleeves.

With a sigh she stared around the room, getting a good look at it for the first time since she hadn't cared to investigate it when Demetri and Felix had bought her there in the very early morning. The room was made up of colors of crème and gold, a large off-white shag carpet covered most of the smooth stone floor, and she had fallen asleep on the undoubtedly king sized bed with a crème colored comforter with gold embroidery of some kind of leaf pattern.

There was a light tan leather couch pushed up against the foot of the bed, which had a pile of blankets that hadn't been there before and a small stack of clothes next to it.

On the left side of the room there were more towering bookshelves like the ones in the main room, with plush seats and a small table making up a little sitting area in front of them. Castiel had wanted to take one of the books to read on the large windowsill last night, but not only did she notice she couldn't open the window as it seemed to be stuck shut after years of un-use, but the books were all in languages she couldn't understand.

Across the room from the bed there were two chairs and side tables sitting in front of the fireplace and just like in the main room the mantle of this fireplace had a television mounted on the wall over it as well.

The right side of the room had a grand white armoire with a matching vanity next to it. She had taken a quick peek in the armoire last night and had been disappointed to see that it was empty. At least that would explain why someone must have left her clothes, but was this going to become a daily thing? Was she just going to sit in a living quarters three times the size of her fathers' home with empty furniture and books she could never read?

Of course she could watch something on the television, but really the only times she watched TV was when she was binge watching shows like NCIS on Netflix or re-watching all the Harry Potter movies.

Wanting to get away from the overly large and empty room that put depressing thoughts into her head, Castiel resolved that she would try and figure out what was going to happen from this point onward even if it meant demanding to see Aro, because she flat out refused to be locked away in some room like an animal.

Grabbing the pile of clothes on the couch, Castiel began to undress. She had been left a plain black blouse – one that must have been tailored to fit whoever this belonged to since it felt tight around the bust on her – along with a pair of slim black jeans that luckily seemed to only be a few inches too long at the bottom and very slightly loose at the hips.

She knew the clothes couldn't be new since they had no tags and felt warm as if they had just been taken out of a dryer. So she neatly rolled the legs of the jeans so they didn't pass her ankles before tugging her shoes back on.

She had also been left a very expensive looking, but still very soft, dark brown leather jacket. As she shoved her arms through the sleeves she wondered if she could ask the owner of her borrowed clothes if she could keep the jacket. It really was very nice and suited her tastes.

Gathering up her courage Castiel marched determinedly from her bedroom and through the living room before approaching the door that lead out to the hall. She yanked open the door with a little too much gusto and found herself blushing when she ended up bumping into the back of a guard outside her door, the latter turning to face her with a raised brow.

The guard at her door probably just about six feet tall, and he was lean and muscular with dark brown hair that was trimmed short… maybe about an inch shorter than Demetri's dirty-blonde artfully messy style. This vampire also seemed to carry an air of boyish charm even though his face was as perfectly angular as any of the other vampires here, and his eyes looked as though they had permanent laugh lines at the corners making them seem much less frightening even though they were the same deep red as all the other guards.

She didn't know why, but he made her think of Trent even though he looked nothing like her human best friend.

"Well," Castiel said nervously, laughing in an embarrassed sort of way, "This is… embarrassing." Her determination had faltered at the appearance of this vampire as she hadn't been checking her future to see if she were being guarded, so she had been caught totally unawares.

The man didn't say anything, and his brow was still raised when she coughed uncomfortably.

"Soooo," Castiel drawled, figuring she already looked extremely foolish after charging directly into this vampire's back and therefor had nothing to lose. "Am I allowed to leave?"

"Leave as in leave Italy?" The man asked, and much to her relief his tone was teasing, "No. But leave your room? Of course."

He stepped back so she could exit the room, and she moved quietly to the side so he could lock the door.

"Err right." Castiel really wasn't sure what to do now, and the guard seemed to notice because he gave her a knowing smile and indicated down the hall with his hand.

"I can show you where the kitchen is if you'd like as I'm sure you're very hungry. One of the chefs can make you something."

While she couldn't deny that was very hungry, she also couldn't stop herself from asking "Chefs?" as they began to walk down the hall together, the tall guard leading the way. "As in plural? Why does a castle full of vampires need not just one but multiple chefs?"

He chuckled as if her question had been funny. "You'd be surprised how many humans we have working in this castle. I'm sure you're aware that the humans we employ are in on our secret and therefor they cannot just quit their job. We try to be sure that when we offer a position in our coven to a human that the job perks are irresistible. We offer them the most amenities we can, chefs to make meals, free housing within the city and castle, use of the swimming pool and sport courts we have… along with a very good wage to make accepting our offer worth their while."

This did surprise her, she knew the rumors of this coven weren't very good even though her friends really didn't tell her more than the basics of them so it was a shock that they seemed to treat their human employees well… at least well when it came to living conditions.

"My name is Afton by the way," The guard said suddenly as he led her down another drafty hallway, where at the end of which they had to descend a flight of stairs.

"Oh! I'm sorry," Castiel frowned, "I really should have asked you your name, that was rude of me. I'm Castiel, and I promise I usually have better manners than not asking people their names and walking into them."

"And-," she paused uncertainly "I would shake your hand but first… you can't read all my thoughts too right?"

This made Afton laugh loudly, and when he laughed the smile lit up his whole face. His joy was contagious and Castiel found that she couldn't help laughing with him.

"Oh no that's only Master Aro." He chuckled, "I do, however, have the gift of diversion. It is mental in nature and enables me to create an illusion of me disappearing on the spot. I can also make others disappear with me as long as we are touching."

Castiel's jaw dropped, she hadn't been expecting that response. "But even without seeing you wouldn't other vampires be able to smell and hear you? Not that your gift doesn't sound really cool anyway! I'm just curious."

She wasn't sure if it was her business to ask but Afton couldn't really expect that he could just spring that on her and she wouldn't ask any questions, could he?

Afton shook his head, "No actually they can't. The illusion itself causes a slight sensory deprivation – though nothing compared to what Alec can do – and it hides all aspects of me and those I am touching from sight, sense, and thought."

Before she could ask who Alec was, the two of them stepped onto an elevator at the end of the hall and the warmth inside stopped her train of thought in its tracks and she sighed in relief.

"I'm sorry it's so cold here." Afton said, his previously cheerful face now gracing a deep frown, "The only ones who make a habit of roaming the halls here are immortals, and since we don't need heat the only rooms that are warm are those our mortal employees congregate in. I'm sure we will have some warmer clothes coming for you so you don't have such a hard time."

She only nodded as the elevator began to move downward, before touching her eyes gently with the tips of her fingers and wincing. "Tell me honestly how bad do I look?"

Afton pursed his lips for a moment, turning his head slightly so he could get a good look at her face. "You look… alright. You seemed to have rubbed your eyes raw when you were crying last night. I'm sure we can stop and see Arkos to check if he has something to sooth the area if it hurts."

With a ding, the doors opened and the pair stepped out.

Castiel sighed, shoving her hands in the pockets of the jacket, "And I'm assuming you heard all of that last night didn't you?"

While Afton could hear the depressed edge to her tone, he didn't feel it was right to lie to her. "I did."

"Sounded like a dying whale right?" She joked halfheartedly, though the humor didn't reach her eyes.

Afton's lips twitched as he tried not to smile. He really appreciated Castiel's easygoing nature so far, and was glad to see that she wasn't above making fun of herself to lighten the mood.

"Not a dying whale per says," he shrugged, "But maybe like a whale trying to pass a kidney stone… if that's even possible"

Unexpectedly, Castiel burst into laughter. She hadn't expected him to go along with her teasing, but she couldn't help the happy feeling that seemed to fill her chest when she realized that yes… this guard was exactly like Trent.

"Do whales have kidneys?" she inquired, once she calmed down enough to speak, "I never took marine bio."

Afton didn't answer her question. They had come upon a metal door at the end of yet another hallway they had traveled down, and upon opening it, they stepped into a very sleek and lavish looking kitchen. There were stainless steel appliances, a large breakfast bar, a huge cooktop, and a stove that an older gentleman was working at.

The smells of peppers greet Castiel's nostrils as Afton shut the door, and the sound caused the man at the stove to turn.

He was probably around 70 years old and very grey, his skin was aged and wrinkled but his hazel eyes were alight with excitement. He seemed completely at ease here, and the smile he gave Castiel showed that he must have greatly enjoyed what he was doing.

The man opened his arms in welcome, and Castiel noticed he was wearing an apron that seemed stained with different sauces as he came over to her and kissed her enthusiastically on both cheeks, much to her own embarrassment. He proceeded to say something to her in Italian and the large grin never left his face.

Afton said something back to him and the only part of the conversation she was able to understand being the word "English" as Afton motioned to her.

"My apologies Stella!" The old mans voice was gravelly and excited, his heavy accent endearing, "My name is Emmanuel, I am the head chef here. Afton says you would like some food yes?"

After going over foods she liked and disliked, as well as informing him that she was allergic to most berries aside from strawberries, the Chef began taking out extra pans to work on something for her. She assumed it would be a pasta dish since it was closer to dinner than breakfast.

Afton had taken a seat the breakfast bar at the end of the kitchen and Castiel didn't hesitate in going to sit with him, assuming the reason he hadn't left being because he was required to be wherever she was.

"You have a berry allergy?" Afton asked once she sat beside him. He had been allowed to look over the chart Arkos had shown the masters the previous night, and didn't remember seeing anything about food allergies.

Castiel looked at him strangely, not understanding why he would care, "Yeah, but berries are easy to avoid. I do need an EpiPen in case I ever do consume something I shouldn't though."

"And you have one of those?" Finding out that her allergy was severe enough that she needed an EpiPen was alarming to Afton. He knew that food allergies in humans could range from a mild discomfort of the throat to the much more deadly anaphylactic shock and he wasn't happy to hear that she fell on the more severe range of the scale.

Around a decade earlier they had employed a young secretary who had a deadly allergy to nuts and had gone into anaphylactic shock after eating someone else's lunch in the fridge one day. While the secretary hadn't directly eaten the offensive item – a peanut butter sandwich from what Afton could remember – she had eaten food that had touched it.

They were not able to save the secretary in time as she left her purse in the lobby so her EpiPen was not close enough to be of use to her and no one entered the kitchen until many minutes after it happened.

"Of course," Castiel affirmed, but Afton's relief only lasted for moments before she muttered "damn it" under her breath and said, "It's in my backpack at my fathers house."

Afton was sure she had forgotten to tell Arkos about her allergy so when the chef came over to set her food in front of her he stood. It was a pasta dish just as Castiel had expected, and it had a few different types of cheese, something leafy, and light tomato sauce.

"Please do not leave this kitchen Castiel," Afton tried to make his tone sound like it was more of a request than an order. He wanted to find Arkos and inform him of her allergy as soon as possible. He was extremely unwilling to let anything happen to her in light of the good he knew she was going to bring the coven.

He figured she'd be fine alone with the chef for ten minutes, and didn't wait for her response before reaching into his own pocket and taking out the handkerchief the crest Master Marcus had given him for her was wrapped in.

Unwrapping the necklace, he placed it carefully on the counter in front of her.

"This is your coven crest," Afton said, trying to find the proper words to explain the importance she wear it without giving anything away. "Everyone in the coven has one, and as you are now part of our coven it is… protocol that you wear one as well."

Castiel took the heavy golden crest in her palm, running her fingers along the thick gold chain. The red gem at the bottom was sparkling, and she assumed it was ruby. Unwilling to accept something both so expensive and extravagant looking, she held it back out to the guard wordlessly. She really didn't want to be responsible for damaging it.

Afton could see the argument forming in her head and sighed before reaching forward and carefully folding her fingers shut over the crest, then pushing her hand back toward her. "It's necessary that you wear this crest at all times Castiel."

The gravity of his tone made Castiel unable to stop herself from asking, "Why?"

"Well for one," Afton's mind was reeling as he tried to explain without over-explaining, "The crests are part of our uniform, and therefor they should always be worn, but this crest will also keep you safe. I don't want to beat around the bush and hope you will pardon my language when I say – no vampire here is going to fuck with you if they see that on your neck. I can't promise anything if you aren't wearing it though."

And this was true for more than just the vampires in the coven. Even nomads would be cautious of her if they saw her wearing that crest. While they might not know the significance of the crest the extravagance of it hinted that the Masters held her in high regards.

Just over a dozen guards had seen her in the throne room when she arrived and knew what had happened, but she was still a mystery to about the near two hundred other vampires in the Volturi's employ. The crest would be necessary to keep her safe from the younger guards, and any other guards that had yet to meet her.

"Will you get in trouble if I don't wear it?" Castiel asked, and Afton nodded.

She sighed reluctantly.

She didn't even need to unclasp the chain to put it on. It was so long she could just slip it on over her head. The pendant itself rest heavily on her chest between her breasts, and as she made to move the necklace to hide it under her shirt Afton held up a hand to stop her.

"Please Castiel. It has to remain visible."

She didn't want to get him into trouble, he seemed nice enough and she had a feeling they could be spending a lot of time together, so while she waited to find out how much longer she had until her humanity was taken from her she figured it would be best to try and become friends with him.

"Please call me Cas," She said as she began twirling some pasta around her fork. "My name is such a mouthful."

Afton pursed his lips for a moment. The ancients usually didn't like the shortening of names since they viewed it informal to the point of disrespectful.

So he merely nodded at her, resolving to mention her request to Marcus so that it would be evident he was only following her wishes before he started calling her by a shortened name.

Giving her a pointed look as he turned to leave, she responded to by putting her hands up by her shoulders in surrender with an expression that clearly told him to chill out.

Once he was gone, Castiel took her time to eat. The food really was very good, and the chef looked like she made his day by voicing her approval. She took her dishes to the sink to rinse them, but she was stopped by the chef, who lightly nudged her back to her seat insisting it was his job to clean as well as cook.

Afton had been gone longer than she expected, and Castiel began to feel very restless. The chef had left almost fifteen minutes ago, so she was alone in the pristine kitchen as she walked around admiring the appliances as she chewed on an apple she took from a large decorative bowl.

Spotting a trashcan next to a door on the opposite side of the room, Castiel paused in the center of the kitchen and tossed har apple core while calling "Kobe!". It landed in the trashcan with a satisfying thump and she threw her hands up in victory before crossing to the door and reaching for the handle. She expected the door to lead to a walk in freezer or something of the sort, and therefor was very surprised when upon opening it she came out to another empty hall.

"I really have to start making a map of this place." She mumbled under her breath as she shut the door behind her and traveled down the new hall. Perhaps she would try to find her way back to her room or find Afton. After all it was possible he had merely forgotten about her. She was just a boring human after all, and she was sure he had more important things to do.

She walked for a while, picking random halls to travel along when she came to forks as she looked for a staircase that would lead her up.

Following the curving hallway she was currently in, she found herself in a new hall where most of the left wall was taken up by many floor length windows that let the warm sunlight stream through. The right wall only held a couple candelabras that weren't lit. It really was something straight out of a movie, and before she could go stand by one of the windows to look out and hopefully figure out where she was in proximity to her room someone else entered the hall across from her.

They stopped and stared at each other. This vampire was totally unfamiliar to Castiel and she was sure he hadn't been in the throne room when she arrived. He wore a light grey cloak and had dark brown hair that was cut in a style that reminded her of Justin Bieber in 2009. He didn't look much older than sixteen, which was surprising to her.

But his hair had Castiel trying very hard not to laugh. The idea of being permanently stuck with a Justin Bieber-esque bowl cut forever was really very unfortunate.

Her thoughts might have been obvious on her face, because the boy glared at her.

"What's so funny you filthy little human?" He sneered at her, and the smile fell from Castiel's face when he insulted her.

"Excuse me?" She really didn't appreciate how he was talking to her. Yeah it wasn't nice of her to laugh at his hair, but she didn't even say anything! How could he know what she was thinking and what gave him the right to be such a jerk?

Suddenly he was in front of her, totally invading her personal space and causing her to step back in alarm.

"I asked you what was funny you pathetic little human. Are you stupid or just deaf?"

Castiel felt her hands ball into fists at her sides, she knew she could have a hot temper when she got going but she figured now really wasn't the time to try and pick a fight.

"Well," She snapped back at him, not at all impressed by his high and mighty attitude, and seeming unable to help herself as she said, "I just find it funny that you seem to be rocking the old Bieber haircut. It's very unfortunate really."

The guard snarled at her, and Castiel sensing the danger slipped into her foresight.

Her pupils blew open wide and she ducked just in time to avoid the vicious backhand the guard aimed at her face.

When his arm passed over her, she took his moment of surprise as an opportunity to do the only thing she was sure might hurt him, and she literally punched him in the crotch.

Because vampire or not, she was sure getting hit in the balls still hurt.

The guard bent double, cupping himself as he shoved Castiel back.

She didn't fall hard, but she did stumble backwards and fall on her butt with a slight, "Oof."

The guard recovered quickly but didn't have a chance to even stand up straight before Afton appeared seemingly from nowhere. And without so much of a word, Afton hit the guard with an impressive right hook that send him him to the floor with cracks forming across his neck, cheek, and ear.

There was a long pause where the guard stared up at Afton looking utterly bewildered, and Afton took a deep calming breath before turning to where Castiel was on the floor. He reached down slowly so he wouldn't startle her before wrapping his hands around the tops of her arms and hoisting her to her feet.

He brushed the back of her jacket off for her while asking, "Are you alright?"

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she gave a soft, "Yeah." Before looking to the guard on the floor, "Thanks for hitting him for me."

"Oh." Afton paused, glancing at the guard with disinterest, "I was hitting him for me, but I can punch him again if you'd like."

The nonchalant way he said it made Castiel burst into peels of laughter.

"No no," She giggled as she tried to compose herself, "I think you got a good enough hit in for the both of us."

Afton smiled at her then, and it was the lighthearted boyish smile that reminded her so much of Trent. When he grinned like that, she realized that if she ever wanted to dislike this guard that chance had long since passed.

They must have raised some sort of alarm, for a couple seconds later Demetri and Felix entered the hall unnaturally quickly… well unnaturally by human standards at least.

They took in the scene before them with expressions that were a mixture of both surprise and worry before Demetri spoke.

"Is everything alright here?" Demetri tried to control his tone so his relief wouldn't show in his voice. They heard Castiel arguing with the guard from a way away and only grew increasingly worried when they heard Afton arrive to fight. It would not bode well for any of them if she were hurt, but she appeared to be unharmed.

"Yeah." Castiel answered, unable to help the bitter edge that seeped into her tone, "This guy just has some opinions that are better kept to himself."

Felix, who really needed no other indication of where the trouble came from than Castiel's words, moved forward to pick the guard up roughly off the floor. He knew him of course. He was a recruit by the name of Shaun who had joined the Volturi in the last five years.

Shaun gave a gasp of fear when Felix yanked him roughly up by the arm. During the altercation the guard hadn't noticed the crest on Castiel's neck for her jacket had covered it while she was walking since she had subconsciously pulled it closed around her due to the chill of the halls.

But now that her form had relaxed her jacket had fallen open leaving the crest in plain view on her chest.

Shaun blanched upon seeing it. "I… I didn't-," he stuttered, unable to take his eyes off the necklace. He might have had no idea what was going on but he knew there was only one reason the human would be wearing the crest of Master Marcus, "I… didn't know… I didn't know I swear!"

His voice had broken at the end of his sentence, making it sound as though he was squealing.

His pleading caused Castiel to look down at her crest in confusion. Was it some unbreakable rule that you don't attack a coven member? But he had been so nasty to her for no reason… was he some kind of problem child or something?

"We'll let you explain your reasons to Aro yourself." Demetri snapped, and the guard visibly cowered.

Without saying anything further, Demetri nodded to Afton and Castiel while Felix yanked the guard along in his wake. The guard seemed to have lost the ability to use his legs, and was stuttering incoherently as his eyes filled venom tears that would never fall.

"Wait!" Castiel called out to them before they were around the corner, shaking off the stunned feeling that had fogged her brain. They halted, but only Demetri turned to face her. Castiel seemed to be unaware of the fact that Afton had placed his arm out to stop her from moving forward to follow the pair, and was staring at her in confusion.

"You aren't going to hurt him are you?" Castiel asked, her voice trembling. "Please don't hurt him. This whole confrontation was stupid."

She knew wouldn't be able to live with this guard's life on her conscience even if he was an ass. He just needed a lesson on how to talk to people.

But Demetri seemed to have no answer for her and only shook his head before disappearing with Felix.

Castiel reached up and gripped Afton's arm, unable to move her eyes from the spot the duo had disappeared.

"I don't want them to hurt him. Please Afton I don't want anyone to get killed because of me."

His face softened at her defeated expression. He could already tell she was too sweet for her own good.

"They won't kill him Cas." He wasn't sure if his words were true, but once her lips quivered as if she were about to start crying he was willing to say anything to make her feel better. "Aro will see your protests… I can't promise the guard won't be hurt since vampires require a certain level of brutality to be kept in line, but I'm sure Aro will try and take your feelings into account."

Castiel released his arm, and they stood in tense silence for a minute before Afton had what he felt was a brilliant idea, because there was always one surefire thing to do when you felt terrible.

You go to your mate.

"Why don't I show you to the library?" He suggested with a smile, taking her hand and towing her back the way she had come, "I'm sure the books in your room are so ancient and dusty that even I can't read them. Something more modern might be a better reading option."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revised January 19th, 2021
> 
> (17 Pages, 7,745 Words)


	7. Marcus

"Whose books are in my room anyway?" Castiel asked as Afton lead the way to the library, "I'm assuming they belong to someone since they would be in the library otherwise, right?"

Castiel knew they weren't far from their destination now because Afton had slowed in his step to walk beside her as they reached a hallway that was much wider than all the others. She could see the outline of two vast doors down at the other end of the hall. Castiel was slightly annoyed at how complicated all the paths were in this castle, and she knew that without Afton's help she would have to depend completely on visions to navigate. Her head was feeling full, she always felt like she had a buildup of pressure when she refrained from her visions for to long. Being sick was one thing, but intentionally not having vision could give her headaches as well.

"They belong to Master Marcus. I'm sure most of those tomes are well over a thousand years old which is why they are fairly irrelevant to you."

A thousand years old? She hadn't considered the reasons she couldn't read the books in her rooms being anything other than the fact she only knew one language, meanwhile it was likely that the languages the books were written in were long dead.

And if they could have books as old as Afton said they were, how old were the Volturi?

"How old are you Afton?"

Afton laughed, sending her a teasing look, "Isn't it considered rude to ask someone their age?"

"Only if you're a middle aged human woman, and as far as I'm concerned you aren't one of those." Castiel cocked her head to the side, grinning mischievously at him. "But you do have very feminine hips… I'm sure if we got you a grey wig and put you in a floral dress you could pull it off."

Afton did his best to look offended, but in the end he couldn't help laughing, "Hey! You leave me and my hips alone! But to answer your question… I believe around a decade ago I hit my twenty-three hundredth birthday."

Castiel's jaw dropped and she was rendered totally speechless for a moment before stuttering, "Y-you're kidding?"

"Not at all." He said seriously before grinning wolfishly at her, "So you better be nicer to your elders!"

Her flabbergasted expression didn't go away, and Afton poked her teasingly in the ribs.

"You think I'm old? I've got nothing on the Masters when it comes to age."

This caught her attention.

"You mean Aro and the other two men on the thrones?" Castiel's eyes were wide with surprise and alight with childlike curiosity. Afton couldn't help but think that she really was very attractive, and her easygoing personality was only a huge bonus to her looks thus far. He was surprised that there really seemed to be no boyfriend in the picture but couldn't deny that he was glad she was single for Marcus' sake.

"Yes," He affirmed, hoping she hadn't noticed his moment of thought, "Aro and his brothers Caius and Marcus."

"And how old are they?" Castiel felt like he was stalling by the way he paused before answering her, but he did answer her nonetheless.

"Caius is older than his brothers by only a couple centuries, and we believe he passed his four-thousandth birthday recently. Though we can't be sure of course when so much time passes you lose track of things like age."

Four thousand years old? Castiel had a feeling she resembled a goldfish with how much she was gaping. She knew they were immortal, but she was still surprised they could look like they were in such good shape after so many years.

After vocalizing this thought to Afton, the guard nodded at her in understanding.

"Something you must understand Castiel is once a person becomes a vampire, they freeze in their current state of being. We do not just stop aging, our bodies permanently become unchanging. We cannot gain or lose weight, we can't grow out our hair, and we can't reproduce… these things being unable to influence us leaves us looking the same our entire existence."

His tone had gone rather grave, so Castiel teased, "At least you guys are pretty."

It helped; a second later Afton was chuckling. "Yes, there is that."

Suddenly they arrived at two grand doors at the end of the hall. These doors were easily fifteen feet tall and just as wide. They were made of what looked like a very fine wood that was expertly carved with nature scenes, vines, and what seemed to be representations of angels and gods.

The doors were a masterpiece to look at, and Afton didn't interrupt her as she took a moment to observe the woodwork. The craftsmanship still impressed him to this day, so he could understand her wonder.

When she turned to look back at him, Afton merely gave her a small grin while promising she would be even more impressed by the library itself, before he opened one of the doors for her and stood aside so she could enter before him.

The Volturi's library was magnificent. It was multiple stories high with rolling ladders leaned up against many shelves. Castiel could see plush sitting areas, large round tables, and multiple fireplaces on the first floor alone. Looking up she could see onto the other floors, for the main foyer's ceiling reached up multiple stories and the ceiling itself was panted with a representation of what could only be Heaven.

There must have been millions of books in this library. The Volturi obviously hadn't spent their thousands of years alive without anything to do. This collection was beyond her wildest dreams, movies could never recreate such a masterpiece.

"We have a different way of organizing the literature here," Afton said, breaking Castiel out of her trance as she continued to walk further into the library. "We have books in really every language you can think of – though I know you prefer English – and most of our coven members prefer finding their reading by the year the books are from rather than the author, so if there is anything you are looking for specifically I'm sure I can help you find it."

Castiel nodded silently, acknowledging what he was saying even though she still felt too entranced to speak. Her attention was suddenly caught buy a section to the far-right corner of the library, it was roped off and shadowy as if the lights were out by those shelves.

Following her gaze, Afton answered the unspoken question in her eyes. "That is the restricted section. It has books the masters have written personally, as well as books on our species and books with… questionable topics."

Castiel turned, raising her brow at him, "Questionable topics?"

"Indeed," Afton's expression was severe, "The books kept in the restricted section are rather… unsettling. Some rituals depicted within them are enough to curl your hair and don't even get me started on some of the imagery."

She shivered, shaking her head at him. She didn't really want to know any more about the books in that section. Of course, she was sure the books must have come in useful at some point over thousands of years, she just knew she wouldn't be touching them with a ten-foot pole.

Glad he had diverted her attention away from the restricted section since no one was allowed to look at any of the books in that section without explicit consent of the masters, he led her to the left and into the maze of towering bookshelves toward the center of the library. Though she followed behind him, he could hear as she ran her fingertips across the spines of books or slowed her steps when something caught her eye. There was much here to be curious about, and even in thousands of years Afton hadn't learned nearly a quarter of what the library had to offer.

The center of the library was a sitting area. There were many plush chairs grouped around round tables that still had books resting open upon them, as well as parchment and notebooks scattered about. On the tables there were also notes left by other guards saying things like "do not touch" or "put these back and I'll rip your throat out" since sometimes it was unavoidable that they would be called to the masters aid or have to go on spur-of-the-moment missions.

The sitting area was circular, with a fireplace in the far right that had four high-backed plush chairs grouped around it. This area was where the brothers would sometimes go to relax and talk outside of their private rooms. Their private rooms were almost completely soundproofed to even vampire ears, though one could hear if they were standing directly against the door, so when they had conversations in the library it was rarely anything of importance.

Marcus was sitting in one of the chairs closest to the fire, his eyes locked on the same passage of the text he had been reading – or at least trying to read – for the last five minutes. When he had arrived in the library hours before hand, the guards who had taken rest in the center had left to explore other areas of the library or find their friends as it was common for him to want privacy. Only Afton's mate and Marcus' other guard Chelsea was still around, and she was resting with her legs crossed on the floor and her back against one of the bookshelves around fifty feet from Marcus.

Chelsea and Afton smiled at one another when their eyes met, and though he could feel Marcus' eyes bearing down on them Afton motioned to Chelsea with a smile.

"Castiel, I'd like to introduce you to my wife Chelsea." Afton's voice was so proud when he said her name that Castiel couldn't help but smile as Chelsea stood quickly and flashed over to them, stopping a few feet from her.

"Love," Afton said to his wife, motioning to Castiel, "This is Castiel."

"It's so nice to meet you." Chelsea said earnestly, reaching forward to take her shoulders and pull her into a gentle hug. This vampire was soft and almost motherly, with wavy chestnut hair and a heart shaped face. Her height was average at about 5'6" and she had the figure and curves of a goddess. Though that was not entirely surprising as she was immortal.

"Hi." Castiel was suddenly feeling very shy, as she wasn't expecting to be so welcomed. Everyone seeming to like her so much definitely made the fact she had been forcibly taken here, arrested, very confusing.

Castiel's scent had spiked when blushed and stepped out of Chelsea's embrace. It was like a sirens call to Marcus who shut his book to focus on his guard's interactions with her. The desire to have her closer almost consumed him, and the tugging feeling returned to his chest. But before he could stand to introduce himself Castiel's expression crumpled into one of discomfort, and her hand moved to cover her stomach.

"Castiel?" Afton's tone was suddenly concerned at her change of expression, and she shook her head at him as she let out a small sigh of irritation.

"I'm fine." She assured "My stomach just… lurched? Ugh. I don't know. I guess the tomato sauce in the pasta was a bit to acidic or something."

Both Afton and Chelsea's eyes flashed to Marcus, whose expression confirmed their thoughts. He had desired his mate's company and wishing for her to come to him caused their mating bond to flare up, trying to get her to act on the instinct.

So his little mate could feel the mating pull after all? How interesting.

While he was amazed she could feel the mating pull at all, Marcus was unbelievably pleased. Aro would have a field day with the fact his human mate could show such drives and Marcus didn't really care for the line of questioning that was waiting for him tonight because of it.

Afton thought quickly, knowing that Castiel's discomfort would remain until she did what the bond wanted her to do and went to her mate. It was very hard trying not to give any hints to Castiel about what was happening but still be of assistance. Her bond with Marcus simply wasn't his business though, and so it was up to his master to explain things to her.

He only hoped the requirement to bite his tongue would not be necessary in a few days, because this was already proving to be a little difficult.

So with a gentle hand on her back, Afton turned her to face Marcus, smiling as encouragingly as he could, "Castiel this is Master Marcus. You might remember him from the other night."

Castiel's stomach twisted in a sudden bout of nervousness. The last time she was in the vicinity of this vampire she had done something to hurt him, she knew she did, and she was suddenly very conscious of her hands, completely unsure what to do with them.

And as she fidget nervously, not knowing what to do with herself, Marcus took note of her sudden discomfort and slowly reached for her hand before gently grasping it and bring it to his lips to kiss her knuckles. Her hand was so much smaller than his – his long fingers grasped nearly her whole hand – and much warmer than he expected. He was relieved she didn't shiver at his touch and couldn't stop himself from taking a deep breath as she blushed even further, her whole face turning pink to the roots of her hair.

"It's lovely to meet you dearest," Marcus' voice was deeper than she expected, and she couldn't ignore the random pull of desire she felt because deep voices were something she found very attractive and frankly, they made her weak.

"Hello," Castiel spoke softly, her brain to mouth filter turning off as she tried to think of something to say, "Afton and I were just talking about you."

His eyes moved to catch those of his guard, who now looked slightly nervous, as an amused smile graced his lips, "Were you now?"

"Yeah, Afton was just going on about how ancient you were." She joked with a laugh as Afton sent her a glare.

It was a true indication of her easy personality that she was teasing Marcus the same way she teased her guard. Most wouldn't dare speak to casually to any of the kings, even with permission.

And if it weren't for the joy she was openly displaying at teasing his guard and himself about his age, Marcus would have been irritated. He hadn't been sure if his age was going to be intimidating to her and would have preferred to breach that subject later on.

But such inconveniences to plans were a part of life, and he knew he needed to cut his guards some slack as everyone was walking on eggshells around him right now and Aro was the only mind reader.

"I suppose I am." Marcus smiled at her, and it was a smile that lit up his whole face, the warmth in it touching his eyes. For a moment Castiel was dazzled and had to give herself a small shake so she could focus again. She was very confused as to what was going on with her as she wasn't used to being so… interested in men.

"To be fair though, after you live a hundred years birthdays do not feel as though they hold the same weight." He motioned to the seat across from where he was sitting previously, nonverbally asking her to sit with him.

And Marcus couldn't believe just how lucky he was when Castiel sat, leaving no indication that his invitation made her uncomfortable. Afton lowly muttered that he and Chelsea would remain in the library before discreetly pulling his mate away to give Marcus some privacy with Castiel.

While Castiel knew that instinctually she should be nervous about sitting with him, she didn't feel threatened by the king. Part of her feelings might have been due to the fact she wanted to apologize for whatever happened last night, but another part of her simply didn't feel the normal prey like reaction to this vampire – the instinct to keep her distance and remain alert that is.

She felt almost… safe, and that was frightening.

But she had to push her feelings aside, she knew that this was likely her best chance at getting answers, even if she wasn't sure of what questions she had to ask.

Marcus sat across from her, a grin pulling at his lips while he moved the book he was reading back to his lap. He thumbed through the pages to find where he had left off, speaking with an air of nonchalance.

"You can ask me whatever you'd like dearest. I can see the questions forming in your eyes."

When their eyes met this time his gaze was piercing, and she twisted her hands together in her lap as she tried to think about where to begin.

"I just… I don't know where to start," She admitted, "I've got a lot of questions and I don't want to seem like I'm grilling you."

She was very straightforward despite her nervousness, and Marcus tried to think of a way to ease her stress levels so she would feel free to speak with him.

"Well then perhaps we can come to an agreement? I won't answer any questions where I feel information will be of no benefit to you, but you may ask me whatever you like. You do not need to have coherency with your questions right now, as I understand a lot has happened to you in the last couple days."

She tried not to let the surprise show on her face at the fact he was so accommodating; she felt it might be a bit insulting to him if she let it be known that she was expecting a more standoffish reaction from someone who was… well a king.

"Uh well… um," Castiel shut her eyes and shook her head, taking a deep breath to clear her thoughts. She missed the sympathetic expression on Marcus' face as she spoke, "How long am I going to be here? I mean what's… what's going to happen to me now?"

Her voice had become very dejected after her pause, and her expression only added to injury as Marcus felt his self-control crack when he took in how raw her eyes were from crying herself to sleep.

Hopelessly he reached a hand out to her, before curling his fingers into a fist and placing it back in his lap, mentally chiding himself.

He could not touch her. She was scared and she was vulnerable. She did not know she was his, and his touch would not bring her any comfort.

"Nothing will happen to you Castiel," Her name flowed from his lips like honey, "You might not believe it but you are safe here."

Safe? Castiel gripped the arms of her chair rather hard, her nails digging into the fabric. She pursed her lips in an effort to stop them from quivering, but it was futile as she began to shake and her vision became blurry as her eyes filled with tears.

Fuck she was going to cry. She had been so sure she could keep it together, she'd cried all last night and there hadn't been a doubt in her mind that she didn't have any more tears to shed.

She was wrong.

"Oh little one," Marcus' sigh was kind as her composure began to crack, "You're going to pieces."

And he was right. No sooner had he said the words than she burst into tears, and even though she was crying she didn't miss the movement as he stood from his chair to kneel in front of her before loosening her grip on the chair with his fingers and folding her hands within his own.

She felt as though she was making a fool of herself. She hadn't meant to have such a monumental breakdown the moment she tried to talk about her fears.

"Hey," Marcus said gently as she squeezed her eyes shut to avoid looking at him as she sobbed, "Castiel what are you afraid of? I assure you if something is frightening you, you can tell Afton. He is your personal guard and you can certainly tell me what's happening as well."

"W-why do y-y-you care?" She stuttered, her voice cracking pathetically and her eyes burning with her tears, "You forced me here, you took away my family, you're going to make me a guard and I don't want to be-,"

This was the core of the problem; he could see that as he placed both of his hands on her upper arms, shushing her as he soothingly ran his hands up and down.

"I care because no one ever had the intention of hurting you sweet one," Marcus spoke quietly, "I am so sorry you were taken here but it is our law, the only other option would have been to-,"

He broke, off unable to say the words. He couldn't so casually talk about executing his mate, he hated himself for even suggesting it the week leading up to her being arrested.

She didn't know how to react to his comfort or his words of endearment, and only tried to choke back her sobs, her form now shaking rather hard as she tried to brush the tears away.

But Marcus caught her hand before it touched her eyes, and silently offered her a handkerchief from his pocket. He could tell she was trying to bring back some of her composure, and was relieved when she gently pat the tears from her face. He didn't miss her wince though and knew they would have to do something to treat the irritation around her eyes.

"We aren't going to make you a guard," He assured her, feeling it was best to be blunt with her. Because whether she knew she was his mate or not her becoming a guard was not up for discussion. She wouldn't be battling anyone, and his family would never allow her on the front lines.

"W-What?" She hiccupped, surprised by his words as he nodded at her.

"You aren't going to become a guard Castiel. I am so sorry that we cannot allow you to go back to your life before this, it is one of our very few laws that humans with knowledge of us cannot walk around unsupervised. Living in our castle is the only option now."

"But I was told-,"

He held up his hand to quiet her, stopping her argument. She was letting her emotions run rampant with her fears and getting herself worked up.

"What you were told is void." He said soothingly, sitting back on his heels, "What I am telling you now is the truth. No one is going to attack you, no one in this castle will change you if that is something you are afraid of. You cannot go home, but you are more than welcome to roam Volterra and the castle. You aren't a prisoner here."

Castiel felt the man deserved an award at how well he handled her fears. She wasn't sure if his promises meant anything, but he was one of the kings. So surely… if he told her she was safe on his order… than she must be right?

Why was he being so nice to her? What was this?

Marcus couldn't address the fact that she would be changed eventually, and felt horrible for phrasing his answers as if she had the choice to stay human. He was fine with her having time, and hoped that within a few years he could convince her to become an immortal with him, but he wouldn't lose her to old age. The only way that would be possible would be if it were over his charred ashes.

The relief when she nodded to him and took a deep breath to calm herself was overwhelming. He was conscious of the fact that she had relaxed in her chair, and after a moment she removed her jacket, revealing that she was wearing one of Athenadora's sleeveless blouses.

The flush of her skin was distracting, and he stood and went back to his seat so he wasn't so close because she was very tempting to him, and not in the manner of food.

After a few minutes of silence, where neither did anything other than breath deeply and stare at the flames in the fireplace, Castiel sighed heavily – her expression ashamed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to freak out like that."

"You have nothing to apologize for," He promised when she shook her head.

"No. I do. I went at you like everything was your fault and it isn't. It's all my fault and I guess I'm just looking for someone to blame."

He wanted to argue with her, wanted to tell her that she wasn't at fault for anything. She didn't deserve to feel this upset, and while he wanted to tell her that he wished this had never happened he couldn't. If her friend Ajmer had never come near Volterra he would have never met her. It could have been a hundred years before the mention of her came up… and she would have long since passed in mortal death.

There was a pause for another moment, the only sounds in the library coming from Castiel's beating heart and steady breathing. It looked to him as if she was trying to collect her thoughts… she seemed to want to continue talking but was obviously trying to remain calm this time.

Not that it bothered him that she needed a shoulder to cry on, as he would gladly be that shoulder.

"So, if I'm not going to be a guard," She said, her blue eyes capturing his, "What am I expected to do here?"

Marcus leaned back in his seat, using a free hand to cup his chin as he ran his index finger across his lips absentmindedly. "Whatever you wish to do." He shrugged, "You are more than welcome to explore Volterra with Afton and perhaps get a better look at the grounds. I want you to consider yourself a guest… do not worry about what is expected of you."

Castiel found herself wanting to argue with him. Just don't worry about it? Try to relax and enjoy herself? Such things were much easier said then done, but she decided against voicing this to him. He had been nothing but courteous to her thus far, and right now she wanted to make more friends than enemies. She was nervous and unsure how she felt about the other two kings. Aro was a bit too exuberant and she knew that Caius had a rather nasty reputation, but Marcus seemed okay. He had even gone so far as to try and comfort her, an insignificant little human, a mere blip on his radar.

"Okay." She said finally, her voice guarded. Marcus could see she had a decent poker face when she made an effort at feigning indifference and was unsure how he felt about that. Though the skill was useful he wanted her to display her emotions more outwardly to him. He wanted to understand how she was feeling.

He wanted her to trust him.

"Why don't we play a game?" Marcus suggested knowing she had to have more questions for him, and he was hoping he could have get some answers of his own.

She obviously hadn't expected him to suggest a game, for her expression very plainly showed her apprehension, and she even looked a little scared.

This caused Marcus to laugh aloud. Laughing wasn't something he did often, but his laugh was deep and as smooth as silk, and completely unchanged from years of disuse.

Though Afton and Chelsea couldn't see their Master or his mate, they both were shocked into absolute stillness at the sound. They had never heard Marcus laugh like this. He might have given a small chuckle here and there every few hundred years, but a full-on laugh was something they weren't accustomed to. It seemed both guards shared the same thought as Chelsea took Afton's hand.

While the guards who were present during her trial were unsure of what Marcus' imprinting on Castiel would mean in the long run Afton and Chelsea were sure of one thing:

Castiel was a very welcome change.

"No need to look so frightened," Marcus' said once he stopped laughing, unable to wipe the smile from his face, "I was merely going to suggest that each time I answer one of your questions you could, perhaps, answer one of mine?"

And realizing what her expression must have looked like caused Castiel to laugh in embarrassment while wishing she had something to toss at him to make him stop laughing at her, "Okay, okay! Laugh it up on my behalf."

Both of them sat grinning at each other for a heartbeat before Castiel asked, "What questions could you possibly have for me?"

"Hm," Marcus mused playfully, earning himself an eye roll from his imprint, "Let's start with something simple. Your name for one thing is very unique. Does it run in your family?"

Marcus loved her name, it was unique and beautiful just as she was, but her expression faltered at his question. She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck as she spoke, "No, it doesn't run in my family."

"You say that as if it irritates you?" His question was more of a statement and she snorted in response.

"Well you'd be irritated too if your parents named you Castiel. It literally translates to castle in some languages, how ridiculous is that?"

"I rather like your name." Marcus mused, his words causing her to blush. He was interested in seeing that her ears turned red long before her face… so if a blush were to travel into her cheeks it hinted at much more acute embarrassment or mirth. Interesting.

But he understood why such a name could be bothersome to someone in this modern day as original names had become very uncommon over the years. "You'll find that the majority of us in this coven do not have very conventional names. My brothers are named Aro and Caius after all, and there wives Sulpicia and Athenadora."

This fascinated Castiel, as it hadn't occurred to her earlier that her guards name – Afton – wasn't exactly common either.

"And you've just met Chelsea, whose original name was Charmion-," Marcus heard a light huff of annoyance carried from the back of the library at this, and he smirked in response causing Castiel to look at him questioningly.

"Who does not prefer the use of her original name."

Marcus' grin made it obvious that he must have heard some form of protest from Afton's wife so Castiel smiled back at him good-naturedly.

"Alright so my name doesn't stand out here, that doesn't change the fact that it's stupid. Please just call me Cas."

While he wanted to tell her that he would prefer to call her by her full name he didn't get the chance to, because it was her turn to ask a question. It wasn't a question that Castiel felt really mattered at all but it was something that popped into her head that she was curious about before.

"What was that writing on the dais earlier?"

Surprised at this question Marcus' brow furrowed, "Pardon?"

"Back in the throne room, I mean, the room I was taken to when I got here. There were words on the steps. What do they mean?"

Her inquisitive look was endearing, and Marcus couldn't help the feeling of wonder that engulfed him at her expression. She could ask any question in the world and she asks this? Her innocent curiosity was an attractive piece of her personality and Marcus had to shake himself out of the slight daze that had overtaken him while he adored his mate.

"I believe it says No one is above the law, though that might be more of a loose translation since it is written in Latin."

And to his surprise, Castiel began to laugh, crossing her arms over her stomach as if she were to contain herself, "You're serious? Ha ha ha, that's great!"

He merely stared at her, confused as to why it was so funny, and his expression only seemed to amuse her more.

"No – seriously! Don't you see how amusing that is? It's exactly what I'd expect being dragged into a vampire's lair. So ominous. Much scare. Very spoopy."

Marcus didn't understand why she was speaking in broken sentences, and was alarmed when he heard bellowing laughter coming from the sitting area above them. Afton was laughing loud enough Marcus was sure Castiel could hear it.

"See?" She giggled, pointing to where Afton's laughter was coming from, "He gets it!"

Once she calmed down again, Afton spoke from his hidden spot in the library informing Marcus that she was making a joke out of an Internet meme.

While Marcus knew how to use a computer, he really didn't spend any time on the Internet doing anything other than research. Aro had been the one to suggest they all learned how to use the new technology when it came out, and while the wives loved it for the use of online shopping he and his brothers only ever used it for business.

"No offence," Castiel said, a huge grin on her face, "I'm not making fun of you guys, it's just all very silly."

"None taken," he said casually, even though she was definitely making fun of them. Just a little bit.

It was surprising to Castiel to hear this ancient king using modern phrases. She opened her mouth to ask another question when he held up a finger at her.

"Oh no, it's my turn to ask you something."

His smug expression caused her to stick her tongue out at him. And while the action surprised him, Marcus was glad she was teasing him and treating him as if he was her friend. He had been very nervous at first that she would be too nervous to speak to him, and that he would have to rely on the bonds pull to get her to spend time with him. But so far she seemed to unafraid and that relieved him greatly.

"What is your family like?"

Castiel froze at the question. She wasn't expecting him to be asking her about her life. She couldn't see why he would care. What she was expecting him to ask were questions about her gift since this seemed to be the only reason she was even given the option to live in the first place.

Marcus noticed the way her expression fell, and couldn't inquire as to what was wrong before she shook her head at him.

"I'm sorry… but why do you care?" Her tone sounded a little bit hurt, and he worried that he had asked something that she wasn't ready to talk about, "Do you take this much interest in all the human that are brought here?"

Gauging her expression, he knew that the best course here was honesty.

"No. I honestly can say that I never express this much interest in any humans brought here, whether they are meant to be guards, or company, or…"

He trailed off, and Castiel knew that the ending to that sentence was food.

"I care because I can honestly say that the way we went about bringing you here is not common for us. We do not kidnap people to acquire gifts or power contrary to popular belief. Since the moment I heard of you and the plan to bring you here for questioning I was against it. My brother felt as though you should be given the option to join us rather than send a guard out to-,"

He stopped again, and Castiel finished his statement in a solemn tone. "Kill me?"

Marcus winced, and the expression of pain that crossed his face at her words was a shock to her. He cared… and he wasn't lying to her when he said he cared.

"I felt as if you should have a choice. I didn't think it was fair for us to hurt you and your family the way I knew we were going to. I didn't need my gift to remind me that splitting people apart like this is wrong. I really am, so sorry, for all the wrong that has been done to you sweet one."

At his term of endearment Castiel felt her ears go warm and, trying to hide the light blush that had spread across her cheeks, she looked away staring back into the fire.

Of course, Marcus didn't miss her blush. He had been spending the better half of the hour memorizing her scent and heartbeat with the utmost care. He was sure he could pick her out in a crowd from miles away.

"You have a gift too?"

Smiling at her inquiry Marcus nodded, fine with ending their game of twenty questions if it meant she would feel more at ease talking to him and asking the questions she needed answers to.

And so they talked. Castiel and Marcus spoke for hours and he found out much about his little mate. She had only two people – well humans – in the world that really mattered to her; these two people being her father and her best friend Trent. She spoke with a voice full of pride about her father, of all he sacrificed for her and all about the life of a single dad just trying to care for his daughter and moving from military base to military base.

She had met Trent when she was barely a teenager at a funeral for one of her father's fallen brothers. The funeral was for Trent's father and while Castiel's dad was comforting his friend's widow, Trent and Castiel had met. Apparently when she had introduced herself to Trent, one of Trent's father's best friends had crashed the funeral blazing drunk – obviously unable to handle the death of his friend in a more appropriate manner – and had run into Castiel. Luckily for her though, Trent grabbed her before she could fall backwards and crack her head on one of the marble tombstones in the graveyard.

They had been friends ever since, and according to Castiel not a day went by that Trent didn't remind her she owed him a lifetime of servitude for "saving her life".

Marcus had explained his gift to her as well, explaining how it worked and how when he would get really absorbed he would "space out". He was surprised when this seemed to make her happy, and she explained that she got like that as well. Whenever she had visions she had he tendency to zone out and she also said she had to be careful not to hold anything, because she always unconsciously tightened her grip whenever she was slipping into a deeper foresight and into the visions where she prophesized things that were going to happen.

Castiel also had a lot of fun when Marcus brought out a coin, saying that he was going to flip it twenty times and he wanted to know beforehand what side it was going to land on.

She got every single one right much to his surprise and teased that he'd have to give her something more challenging in the future.

The future. The very fact she planned to spend time with him again was enough to make his heart soar, and he promised he'd come up with something.

But she surprised him, yet again, when she asked if she could tell him something and if he would promise not to judge her if she did.

He tried to put as much conviction in his words as possible when he assured her that there wasn't anything she could say that would make him think badly of her, and she sighed before speaking in a rush.

"I feel guilty because after talking to you," She made a motion with her hands, as if referencing the last few hours they had been speaking, "I don't feel... I don't feel like it's bad that I'm here? All my life… I've known there was something wrong with me. I was a weird kid with a weird name and a weird ability to see the future. A kid with a mother that never wanted her because she was… wrong… and here I am in a castle full of people – well vampires but you get my drift – who, for the most part, can do things that no one else can. I'm somewhere that I'm not… abnormal for the first time in my life."

"And I feel horrible for feeling this way because of my dad and Trent. They've lost me in the most terrible way possible and I've always said they were all I needed but-,"

Marcus stood suddenly, the action cutting her off. He could sense how worked up she was getting and knelt in front of her as he had earlier, so he was at her level.

"Dearest," he shook his head fondly, "Your feelings of belonging are nothing to be ashamed of. Believe me when I say there is no reason for this… guilt you seem to harbor."

And to his surprise, Castiel reached her hand out for his. He placed his palm in hers and felt as she grasped his fingers for comfort as she swallowed hard, choosing to keep her focus on their hands and not his face.

"There is nothing wrong with you Castiel. There has never been anything wrong with you, and if what you say is true… that your mother abandoned you because she though something was wrong with you well, I can only tell you how wrong she was for doing that."

"And," He continued, throwing caution to the wind, "I don't believe I'd be wrong if I said your father knew that too."

Her throat felt swollen, and she couldn't help the small smile that came onto her face despite the tears that were threatening to brim in her eyes. Marcus was right to mention her father because Castiel didn't really care what her mother thought of her for a very long time, and the reminder that her father loved her was not unwelcome.

So, they continued into more lighthearted conversations. Marcus told her a bit more about the castle and the city and what they had to offer. When he mentioned the castle's gardens and gymnasium, he could see those things interested her and made a mental note to take her to them. He did mention that they had a very fine pool, which was heated so if she ever wished to swim she was more than welcome, but she scrunched her nose at this and at his questioning look informed him that she didn't know how to swim.

Marcus couldn't help but send her a teasing look at that, as he was surprised that she had a Marine for a father and didn't know something as basic as swimming. He would have to teach her one day.

Afton interrupted them at that point and offered Castiel something for the chafed area around her eyes. He had apparently stepped out quickly to find Arkos while they were talking.

Castiel had trouble applying the cream to her eyes since she didn't have a mirror to see what she was doing, and her heart felt like it must have jumped into her throat when Marcus had come over and gently rubbed the medicine into a section near here cheek that she had missed.

Of course, she couldn't deny that Marcus was one fine specimen of a man. His hand was strong and steady when she had held it for comfort earlier, using it as an anchor to calm her hurt feelings and hold her to the present. And now, as he longed back in his chair with his long legs stretched out in front of him and his button up clearly defining his muscles by the dim light from the fire she had to focus on not staring.

The library lights had dimmed hours ago signaling nighttime, and the warm glow from the flames in the fire accented Marcus' fine features as he stared toward the hearth. Castiel hadn't even noticed that she was staring until Marcus looked toward her.

She wished briefly that a hole would open in the floor so she could fall in it, and blushed brighter than she had all day at being caught. But Marcus seemed not have noticed, since he merely gave her a small smile and asked about the books she liked to read.

But Marcus had noticed her staring even if he successfully pretended he hadn't so she wouldn't feel too embarrassed. It took everything he had not to purr in satisfaction at her obvious attraction to him. When a vampire purred, it was mean to show affection or to calm their mate. He wasn't sure he was ready to answer that line of questioning from his curious little imprint until she was aware of their bond.

While they were on the subject of books she liked, Castiel took her chance to bag on him about the dusty old books that he had stored in the rooms she was staying in. And Marcus took her roasting graciously, as he was glad that she merely teased him about his age and didn't seem bothered by it. He assured her that there were books in the library that she would find interest in and that just because they were old didn't mean they weren't good reads.

"I can't read anything that's not in English," She snorted, "So I think I'll stay away from your ancient stone slabs and read something more modern."

Grinning Marcus said "I can translate for you. I can even teach you Italian if you'd like. Or really, I can teach you any language you'd like… though Italian would benefit you the most since we are in Italy."

"How many languages do you know?" Castiel asked, surprised at his offer.

"I think it would be quicker for me to list the languages I don't know."

"Oh I am so going to have to pop that pride bubble of yours one day," Castiel teased "But I guess since vampires apparently have perfect memory or something learning new things must be easy?"

Marcus didn't miss how she seemed unsure in her statement, and inquired how much she knew about vampires. She seemed to know the basics. Speed, strength, immortality and prefect memory, but as Marcus began to go over the basics about vampires a little more deeply Castiel was surprised when she heard they didn't drink blood from their teeth but from their throat. The teeth were only to cut into the jugular, which is why most vampires found movies where vampires sucked blood through two pointed fangs very amusing.

He began to explain things a little better to her, even delving into vampire diets and the fact that there were vampires out there who drank from animals and therefor had gold eyes. She could tell from his tone that he didn't seem to support the diet, and when she asked why he better explained that it made them unstable. A vampire with a "vegetarian" diet was never truly satisfied since the blood of an animal couldn't quench their thirst.

Apparently the Volturi had even researched and experimented with the diet, and found that vegetarian's were only half as strong as the human drinking vampires. Marcus had even explained how if she were to cut herself, she would be in no danger do to the Volturi having a very strict rule that all their coven members had to have exceptional control.

While on the subject of vampires Castiel couldn't help but ask if they ever needed to use the bathroom. The question amused Marcus greatly, but he did inform her that since being a vampire meant one had a strictly liquid diet and therefor never had to poop, vampires still needed to urinate.

She was so curious, and Marcus knew that over the years her curiosity was destined to get her into trouble at some point. But this would only make it so he would have to be more attentive of her whereabouts and more readily on the defensive.

Suddenly, a clock chimed loudly making Castiel jump in her seat and her heart begin to race. She looked around for the source of the chiming but couldn't see it due to the fact it was coming from the clock tower in the square of Volterra.

"It's only the clock tower," Marcus assured her "It's midnight."

"Midnight?" Castiel repeated incredulously, and at his nod she sighed before standing.

"I should probably get to bed then I guess…" She didn't feel very tired, but if she ever planned on having a normal sleep schedule again she'd have to go to sleep very soon. "The jet lag and the whole time change differences have thrown me off a bit."

Marcus nodded in understanding, doing his best not to show his disappointment at her leaving. He hadn't felt so at peace in a long time and he simply wasn't ready for her to go. So many more questions were buzzing around in his mind as Afton walked over with Chelsea, smiling at the two of them as he took place next to Castiel to lead her to her room.

Before Marcus could bid her farewell, Castiel smiled gently at him. She wanted to give him a hug goodbye, as she greatly preferred hugs to handshakes, but she wasn't sure it was appropriate and just asked the first thing that came to mind, completely unabashed by their audience.

"Will you be here tomorrow?" She had a very good time talking with Marcus over the last well, six to eight hours, and found herself hoping she could spend more time with him.

Marcus couldn't help the hopeful feeling bubbling up in his chest. "Of course." He promised, even though he knew in the back of his mind that he was in court the next day. He only hoped his brothers wouldn't be too upset with him for skiving off on them.

"Would you mind some company?" Her smile was bright and happy, and Marcus knew that if she always looked at him like that he would never be able to deny her anything.

"I would love some."

"Okay," Castiel couldn't dismiss the smile on her face, "Well… I'll see you tomorrow." And throwing caution to the wind, not caring if what she was doing was appropriate or not, she jumped forward to hug him quickly around the middle.

Afton and Chelsea tried not to laugh at Marcus surprised expression. Afton even went as far as to give his Master a thumbs up behind Castiel's back when he regained enough of his sense to return the hug and gave her a light squeeze around the shoulders.

And with that Castiel stepped back from their embrace, her cheeks now a light pink from her blush and making a very appealing contrast to her fair skin and her red velvet colored hair.

So with a small smile at his imprint and her guard, the duo left Marcus alone to stand with Chelsea, and at the strange but endearing smile the woman had left Marcus unable to avoid asking what she was thinking.

Chelsea merely shrugged at him before going to grab the jacket Castiel had left on the chair. "Oh nothing. I was just thinking about how perfect she is for you."

Yes, Marcus internally agreed, she is perfect.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Revised January 19th, 2021
> 
> (20 Pages, 8,703 Words)


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